United Nations — The United Nations renewed its appeal for an immediate cease-fire in Sudan on Tuesday, with officials warning that civilians are paying a high price for the fighting, as external parties fuel the conflict by supplying weapons.  “It is long past time for the warring parties to come to the negotiating table,” said U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo. “The only path out of this conflict is a negotiated political solution.”  DiCarlo said that in the absence of a nationwide cease-fire, local ones could give civilians some respite and create openings for dialogue for a more comprehensive agreement.  She told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the rival leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) appear convinced that they can each win on the battlefield and have escalated their military operations and attacks.  “This is possible thanks to considerable external support, including a steady flow of weapons into the country,” she said. “To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”  Russia and Egypt are reported to be among the countries providing the SAF with arms and equipment.  Meanwhile, Sudanese officials have publicly accused the United Arab Emirates of funneling weapons to the RSF militia through neighboring Chad. The UAE vehemently denies the accusation, but a U.N. panel of experts said earlier this year there was substance to media reports that cargo planes originating in the UAE capital had landed in eastern Chad with arms, ammunition and medical equipment destined for the paramilitary group.  Sudan’s ambassador stood by the claim on Tuesday, telling the council that the RSF is using humanitarian convoys to smuggle both weapons and foreign mercenaries through the Adre border crossing with Chad. Sudan’s authorization for that crossing is about to expire and humanitarians — and most council members — want it to remain open.  “We commend the Sudanese authorities for opening the Adre border crossing in mid-August,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “This single route allowed aid organizations to bring enough food, health and nutrition supplies to serve more than 1.9 million people. Now, Sudanese authorities must keep Adre border crossing open indefinitely. Millions of lives depend on it.”  Eleven million people have been displaced and half of Sudan’s population, an estimated 25 million people, are struggling with crisis-level food insecurity, according to the U.N. Famine was confirmed in August in the northern part of Sudan’s Darfur region.  “In North Darfur, fighting in and around El Fasher continues to intensify and block the movement of aid supplies into the area,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the coordination division of the U.N. office on humanitarian affairs.  El Fasher is the capital of North Darfur and has been the epicenter of a battle for the last seven months between the RSF, who are poised to capture the city, and the SAF, which are trying to hold on to it. More than 1.5 million civilians in El Fasher, many of them displaced from other parts of Sudan, are caught in the crossfire.  Humanitarians have confirmed famine conditions in parts of El Fasher, including at the Zamzam camp for displaced persons, which houses more than 400,000 people. Rajasingham said about a third of the children in the camp are malnourished, including 10% who are severely malnourished.  Since Oct. 20, tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced from eastern Al Jazirah state, following a wave of RSF attacks on villages there that reportedly killed more than 120 civilians. Women and girls were raped, markets looted, and homes and farms were burned to the ground. “The international community must take what’s happening in Sudan seriously and must take urgent action to address it,” Rajasingham said of the spreading conflict. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions committee for Sudan designated RSF commanders Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla and Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed for sanctions for their roles in the violence in Darfur.  The United States said Tuesday that it is adding Barkalla to its own sanctions list and noted it had already designated Hamid in May 2024. The U.N. Security Council is working on a draft resolution focused on the protection of civilians through the implementation of commitments both parties made last year in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as well as supporting mediation that would lead to a cease-fire. No date for a vote has been announced.

[Dabanga] Amsterdam -- Many Sudanese are mourning the death of the famous poet and dramatist Hashim Siddig, who died in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday morning. He was 77 years old. Siddig is not only famous for his epic poem on the 1964 revolution in Sudan, but also for his radio and television dramas.

[Dabanga] Melbourne, Australia -- A 52-year-old man was jailed in Australia today, after he deceived his Sudanese wife into leaving Australia, and subsequently left her stranded in Sudan. A Sudanese family law expert has hailed the verdict as "a victory for women". The man, who is an Australian citizen, was charged by Australian Federal Police in 2022, under exit trafficking legislation, enacted by Australia to combat human trafficking that pivots on the departure, instead of the arrival of the victim. Neither names may be revealed for

[Dabanga] Airstrikes killed dozens and injured others in Nyala and neighbouring Beleil in South Darfur and Mellit, El Koma, and Kabkabiya in North Darfur on Saturday and Sunday, according to a Radio Dabanga listener. Multiple political actors and groups have condemned the "random" air raids.

[UN News] The people of Sudan face an ever-deepening crisis as the relentless war between rival militaries pushes the country further into chaos, the UN's top political affairs official told the Security Council on Tuesday, underscoring that a ceasefire and a negotiated political solution remain the only viable path to peace.

[MSF] An alarming number of children suffering from severe malaria have been admitted to Aweil state hospital, where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) runs the paediatric and maternity wards, in Northern Bahr El-Ghazal state, South Sudan, over the past three months. Malaria admissions to the children's ward began to increase in June and, by September, up to 400 children a week were being admitted to the paediatric department with severe malaria - more than double the numbers compared to September the

[VOA] United Nations -- The United Nations renewed its appeal for an immediate cease-fire in Sudan on Tuesday, with officials warning that civilians are paying a high price for the fighting, as external parties fuel the conflict by supplying weapons.

Critical levels of nationwide hunger in Sudan has only increased to critical levels since the start of the Sudanese civil war in April 2023. Escalated hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have led to limited mobility and repeated blockages of humanitarian aid. This, coupled with the volatile floods […]

In August, fellow reporter Jason Patinkin and I crossed on foot from northern Uganda into rebel-held South Sudan. Over the course of four days, we walked more than 40 miles through the bush, escorted by rebel soldiers, to shed light on one of the world’s most underreported conflicts.

Reporting on South Sudan’s war, which began in 2013, has always been a challenge due to the risk and logistical hurdles associated with accessing remote areas where fighting takes place. But over the past year, covering the war and its humanitarian fallout has become particularly difficult. Since the beginning of this year, South Sudan’s government has banned at least 20 foreign journalists in an apparent effort to silence reporters who had a track record of critically reporting on the government.

This systematic crackdown on the foreign press (South Sudanese journalists have long risked imprisonment and death for doing their work) coincided with two important developments. In November 2016, the United Nations warned that the violence being committed against civilians in the southern region of Equatoria risked spiraling into genocide. Then, in February, the UN declared a man-made famine, warning that 100,000 people were at risk of starving to death as a result of civil war.

Journalists seeking to cover these events were left with two equally unsavory options: self-censorship or a risky trip to rebel-held parts of the country. Only a handful of journalists have attempted the latter since fighting escalated in July last year. For us, this was our second embed with the rebels this year.

We set off from a town in northern Uganda at five in the morning, bouncing along a bumpy dirt track towards the South Sudan border. Crammed into our four-wheel drive were rebel commander Martin Abucha, a dual American and South Sudanese citizen who we planned to profile for our PBS NewsHour Weekend segment, a couple of guides, and several duffle bags stuffed with our tents, sleeping bags, emergency medical kits and provisions to last us four days.

Just as the sun began to rise above a distant range of hills that we aimed to cross later that day, our car came to a halt in front of a stream. Because of the rainy reason, it carried more water than usual. It was time to disembark and start walking, or “footing,” as South Sudanese tend to call it.

We took off our shoes and waded through the stream’s chilly waters. This was the first of a many rivers we’d have to cross along the way, either on foot or in small flimsy canoes dug out from tree trunks. Each time, we dreaded the idea of falling in with our camera gear.

The first part of our journey in northern Uganda felt very much like a hike through a national park. Passing beautiful landscapes and idyllic farming villages, one could almost forget we were headed into a war zone — but we were about to get a reality check.

We had just crossed into South Sudan when out of nowhere, two dozen armed men popped out of the tall grass and surrounded us at gunpoint.

“Stop! Who are you and where are you going?” a soldier called out in Juba Arabic from his hideout no more than 20 yards away, pointing his AK47 at us. Another one next to him had a rocket-propelled grenade propped on his shoulder, also unequivocally aiming it in our direction.

Instinctively, we threw our hands in the air and exchanged a baffled glance. Had we accidentally bumped into government soldiers? Or perhaps we had come onto the “wrong” rebels? Abucha’s group, called the Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition, is the biggest but not the only armed group in Equatoria, an area rife with rival militia and bandits who exploit the security vacuum left by war.

To our relief, and only after Abucha answered a series of questions, this routine security check quickly gave way to a warm welcome. The platoon would be our escort for the next four days as we trekked to their base and to Loa, Abucha’s hometown.

Keeping up with the rebels was no easy task. Given the country’s pervasive lack of basic infrastructure, South Sudanese grow up walking for dozens of miles just to go about their daily lives. For sedentary Westerners, keeping the target pace of “two meters per second” (around five miles an hour) proved challenging amid 90-degree temperatures, all while filming and plowing our way through dense, itchy elephant grass.

The upside of the cumbersome terrain was that it kept us safe. During our four-day trip, we didn’t cross a single road, instead walking along a dizzying network of narrow bush paths the rebels seemed to know like the backs of their hands. An unwanted encounter with government troops, who tended to stick to roads and move around in vehicles as opposed to on foot, was highly unlikely.

The closest we got to government-controlled area was a visit to Loa, located just two kilometers away from a main road frequently patrolled by government soldiers. We couldn’t stay long, but the hour we spent on the ground offered us a glimpse into what villages must look like in many parts of Equatoria: burned mud huts, looted schools and clinics, fallow fields and – most strikingly – no civilians.

The war has had a devastating impact on South Sudanese communities like the one in Loa, but much of it has remained out of the limelight of international media. Our four-day venture into rebel-held South Sudan offered us a rare opportunity to report ground truths, and we are thankful for that.

The post Column: Why reporting from South Sudan is so difficult — and critically needed appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Watch Video | Listen to the Audio

The United Nations says South Sudan’s four-year-old civil war has left half of the nation’s population — 6 million people — in need of humanitarian aid. The conflict began when South Sudan’s army split between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar. The two men mobilized their respective tribes, the Dinka and the Nuer. The war has caused what is now one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Civil war is emptying huge swaths of South Sudan. The violence has uprooted four million people, including two million who’ve fled to neighboring countries. In the last year, more than a million South Sudanese have poured into northern Uganda alone, crossing makeshift bridges like this one to flee fighting, hunger, and brutal attacks on civilians.

SEME LUPAI, REFUGEE: They started fighting very, very severely. So that made us to escape with our properties to this side.

SIMONA FOLTYN: When Seme Lupai’s family went to one of the refugee camps, initially, he stayed behind to look after the family’s most precious commodity — their cattle. He hid for a year to escape the violence. The refugees carry whatever they can salvage — mattresses, pots, clothes, notebooks — remnants of once peaceful lives turned upside down. At checkpoints, Ugandan soldiers search their belongings for weapons, before the refugees proceed to reception centers. After entering Uganda, the refugees sign in at small waystations. For many, it’s the first night spent in safety after walking for days to escape fighting. Levi Arike fled with his wife and four children.

LEVI ARIKE, REFUGEE: When the gunshots started, we laid under a tree with the whole family, because there was nowhere else to hide. We waited for the fighting to stop, and then we got up and started walking to Uganda.

SIMONA FOLTYN: Uganda now shoulders most of the burden of Africa’s biggest refugee crisis, managing a constellation of camps which require food, water, healthcare, and policing. At Imvepi Camp, now home to more than 120,000 South Sudanese, new arrivals receive vaccinations, hot meals, and basic items such as soap and plastic tarps to build a house. The government also gives each refugee family a small plot of land, about a twentieth of an acre, where they can build a tent shelter and grow crops to eat or sell. But the land often proves too rocky for farming.

SIMONA FOLTYN, IMVEPI REFUGEE CAMP, NORTHERN UGANDA: After completing the registration process, the new arrivals will receive their plot, to start a new life as refugees in Uganda. While they are safe here, there are many challenges ahead, not least processing the trauma of what they experienced back home.

This woman, who we’ll call “Agnes,” agreed to tell us about her harrowing experience. She says four government soldiers from President Salva Kiir’s Dinka tribe stopped her as she was fleeing South Sudan and raped her right in front of her family.

AGNES (translated to English): When they started raping me, they told me not to raise alarm, otherwise they would shoot me. Still when I’m sleeping, I’m dreaming of the Dinka, that they are coming to rape me again.

SIMONA FOLTYN: How often do you have those dreams?

AGNES: Daily, every time I lie down, those dreams come.

SIMONA FOLTYN: A recent Human Rights Watch report on South Sudan found “…a clear pattern of government forces unlawfully targeting civilians for killings, rapes, torture…and destruction of property..” The victims are from ethnic groups suspected to support the rebels.

AGNES: They are doing it, because they know very well that those soldiers are our brothers. So they do it to punish them..

SIMONA FOLTYN: Although the rebels, known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition, purport to protect local communities, there are also reports of their fighters assaulting civilians near the Ugandan border. Josephine Yanya told us she didn’t feel safe in the presence of either side’s soldiers. Her family and neighbors fled their village after government soldiers killed her uncle.

They hid in the mountains only to find themselves under attack again, this time by opposition fighters from the Nuer tribe loyal to former vice president Riek Machar. Yanya says ethnic Nuer soldiers from the SPLA-IO rebel group raped a member of her group and stole her father’s’ cattle.

JOSEPHINE YANYA (translated to English): Before we were thinking that the rebels would protect us, but if they are lacking food, they just come and take things by force.

SIMONA FOLTYN: With nowhere left to hide, Yanya fled to Uganda with her son.
But instead of finding a place to rebuild their lives, they are in limbo. And aid groups don’t have enough food to distribute.

JOSEPHINE YANYA (translated to English):We are getting small food rations. I know it won’t be enough even for one month.

SIMONA FOLTYN: According to the United Nations, the international community has given less than a-third of the $1.4 billion dollars needed for the refugee response in South Sudan’s neighboring countries. These refugees foresee more hardship and have no idea when they might return home.

JOSEPHINE YANYA (translated to English): I’m always praying for peace in South Sudan, and until then, I’ll just stay here.

The post South Sudan civil war causes Africa’s worst refugee crisis appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

Canada's intelligence agency amassed a sizable file on Abousfian Abdelrazik's suspected terrorism ties in the early 2000s, although the validity of that intelligence was called into question during the Montreal man's Federal Court case.

The bloody war that has been raging for a year now has been viewed with indifference by the major powers and even the media

Apart from researching into temple history, Madhusudhanan Kalaichelvan has been creating awareness about heritage and architecture through specially-curated trips

Global crises provide unprecedented opportunities for OM workers to share truth with least-reached people from Syria, Somalia and Sudan.

Rival parties to the conflict in South Sudan are putting military gains ahead of political settlement, a top U.N. official told the Security Council.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday a Sudanese member of its staff was killed by a stray bullet in the restive Darfur region.

A group of high-profile Canadian musicians - including members of Three Days Grace, Billy Talent, Stars, Blue Rodeo, Serena Ryder, and more - recently came together as Artists for Sudan to record a new version of U2's classic "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and raise awareness of the human suffering in Sudan.

Darcy Ataman, a co-producer of the track and the man behind activist organizations like A4A Records and Make Music Matter, discusses the origins of the project, how the star-studded lineup came together, why they chose this particular song, and a lot more.

The track is available to stream and download at www.makemusicmatter.org.

Mr. N. K. Agarwal, learned Senior counsel assisted by Mr. Manoj Kumar Pandey, learned counsel appeared for the petitioner and Mr. Kumar Alok, Standing Counsel-27 appeared for the State respondents.

The Office has pointed out some defects. The petitioner shall ensure removal of the defects within two weeks of the start of normal functioning of the Court, failing which this application would stand dismissed.

In this writ application, the petitioner has sought for quashment of order contained in Annexure-1 vide Memo No. 683 dated 06.04.2020 passed by Sub-Divisional Officer, Sadar, Patna High Court CWJC No.5626 of 2020(2) dt.01-05-2020 2/3 Ara (respondent no.2), whereby the PDS License No. 13/2016 of the petitioner was cancelled.

South Sudan's capital is witnessing heavy fighting due to clashes between former rebels and government soldiers in several parts of the city.

Lado Alphonse says he was a "reject in society" before being recruited by the Cora Lynn Cobras. Now, he is among several players bringing new life to the regional Victorian football community.

African performer Nyapal Lul is making music again in her new desert home of Alice Springs after fleeing war-torn South Sudan in 2013, leaving five children behind.

(United States Supreme Court) - Addressed a question concerning a method of serving civil process on a foreign state. The Republic of Sudan argued that a mailing must be sent directly to the foreign minister's office in the foreign state, not to the foreign state's U.S. embassy. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Sudan's argument in an 8-1 decision. Justice Alito delivered the Court's opinion, in this case arising out of the 2000 bombing of the Navy vessel USS Cole.

(United States Supreme Court) - Addressed a question concerning a method of serving civil process on a foreign state. The Republic of Sudan argued that a mailing must be sent directly to the foreign minister's office in the foreign state, not to the foreign state's U.S. embassy. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Sudan's argument in an 8-1 decision. Justice Alito delivered the Court's opinion, in this case arising out of the 2000 bombing of the Navy vessel USS Cole.

(United States DC Circuit) - Held that claimants whose family members were harmed in a terrorist attack may state a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress even if the claimants were not present at the scene of the attack. The case involved District of Columbia tort law and terrorist bombings in East Africa.

Lahey'deki Uluslararası Tahkim Mahkemesi, hem hükümetin hem de güneydeki özerk yönetimin hak iddia ettiği petrol zengini Abyei bölgesinin sınırlarının hükümet lehinde değişmesini kararlaştırdı.

Sudan'ın başkenti Hartum'da bugün mahkeme önüne çıkacak olan bir kadın, "ahlak dışı kıyafet" -yani pantolon- giydiği için 40 kırbaç ve 100 dolar para cezasına çarptırılabileceğini söylüyor.

Hear about travel to Sudan as the Amateur Traveler  talks to Nicholas Bori of the I Quit project about his journey through that remote African country. Nicholas visited Sudan on an overlanding truck that traversed Africa from south to north.

19 December 2013

3 October 2019

The Chatham House Africa Programme designed the Sudan Stakeholder Dialogues series to help identify the factors that have led to the current economic crisis, the immediate steps that need to be taken to avert collapse and stabilize the economy, and the longer-term structural reforms required to set Sudan on the path to recovery. The project is funded by Humanity United.

Research Event

Event participants

Alan Boswell, Senior Analyst for South Sudan, International Crisis Group
Miklos Gosztonyi, Conflict Analyst, South Sudan, Norwegian Refugee Council
Naomi Pendle, Research Fellow, Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa, London School of Economics
Golda Abbé, Founding Member, Ghidam (Via Skype)
Chair: Teohna Williams, CEO, Business Plan for Peace

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Miklos Gosztonyi, Conflict Analyst, South Sudan, Norwegian Refugee Council
Matthew F. Pritchard, Research and Policy Specialist, McGill University
Joshua Craze, Writer and Researcher
Teohna Williams, CEO, Business Plan for Peace

9 July 2014

Nearly 4 million South Sudanese have been driven from their homes by violence or food insecurity since late 2013, roughly half seeking refuge in neighboring countries. Drought and conflict have converged in the young country to fuel one of the world's most severe humanitarian emergencies. This article examines refugee flows from South Sudan, underlying drivers, and regional and international responses to the crisis.

New South Wales. Army. Sudan Contingent.

Ethnomusicologists visited a North African country to help local singers and a Sudanese Nubian believer write a worship song in his language and style.

A new generation of Sudanese church planters, trained by an Arab OMer in North Africa, revive OM’s ministry in north Sudan.

Peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded from the process. Crisis Group’s research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda suggests that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved.

Women in camps worry they will find little aid if they become victims of physical or sexual violence.

Delays in forming state governments have contributed to the breakdown in rule of law.

[SudaNow] Sudan Ministry of Health announced on Friday 181 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths.

Kenya has accused the UN of bowing to pressure from other countries by setting up an investigation that pins the blame for peacekeeping failures in South Sudan on the Kenyan force commander.

A Kenyan official says a South Sudanese rebel spokesperson has been deported to South Sudan over a Facebook posting, while colleagues fear for his life and human rights workers say he was a UN-registered refugee.

The US says it is closely monitoring the situation following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to withdraw Kenya Defence Forces from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

Campaigners welcome move to criminalise those carrying out FGM, but warn it will take time to eradicate practice entirely

Sudan looks set to outlaw female genital mutilation (FGM), in a significant move welcomed by campaigners.

Anyone found carrying out FGM will face up to three years in prison, according to a document seen by the Guardian.

Robert J. Cabelly, 61, of Washington, D.C., has been indicted in the District of Columbia charging him with conspiracy to violate the Sudanese sanctions regulations and to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign power.

Being born and growing up in Ibuga refugee camp in Western Uganda, I had never felt the sweetness of my home country nor even what it looked like. As a young girl, I thought the camp was my country, only to learn that it was not. Rather, when I was 8 years old, I learned…