By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

May 6, 2013 (BENTIU) - Unity state authorities have removed 27 children from South Sudan’s national army this week as part of the implementation of a series of agreements inked by military and the United Nations on 20 November 2009.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is mandated to facilitate the process in terms of funding South Sudan’s Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration Commission (DDR), which identifies children that may be associated with the armed forces and finds ways to remove and place them back into civilian life.

April 28, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Eritrean women fleeing their country’s oppressive regime are increasingly finding themselves the repeat victim of abuse, exploitation and violence once outside their homeland, a new report by a women’s rights group has found.

April 13, 2013 (BOR) - The United Nations in South Sudan called on Saturday for the mission’s peacekeepers in Jonglei to use force in self defense when threatened or attacked in their areas of operation.

The announcement comes as senior UN officials visited Jonglei sate, where five UN soldiers and seven other staff were killed in the Gumuruk area, while travelling in a convoy from Bor, the state capital, to Pibor town.

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

April, 4, 2013 (BENTIU) - Eight women were abducted and over 170 head of cattle stolen on Monday from South Sudan’s Unity state by a group of raiders allegedly from neighbouring Lakes state.

The women were taken while searching for food along the river side, with communities in Unity state’s Payinjiar county facing severe hunger as a result of last year’s poor harvest.

Payinjiar was among the worst affected counties during heavy floods last June which washed away crops.

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

March 14, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is preparing to relocate thousands of South Sudanese refugees stranded at Ethiopian border villages.

UNHCR’s spokesperson in Ethiopia, Kisut Gebreegziabher, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday that the agency is set to relocate some 16,000 South Sudanese refugees currently settled in the border Wanthowa district to the existing Pugnido camp in Ethiopia’s Gambella region.

February 27, 2013 (JUBA) - Members of the Abyei community called on South Sudan’s to redeploy forces to the disputed border area on Wednesday as Juba accused neigbouring Sudan, of sponsoring the theft of 489 heads of cattle on Sunday evening.

The status of Abyei is one of the main outstanding issues that Sudan and South Sudan have not resolved since the latter’s secession in 2011.

February 28, 2013 (JUBA) – Jonglei’s Lou-Nuer community leaders from Akobo county have petitioned the government to provide more protection to the civil population following the recent brutal killing of their members by a rebel group.

The Pibor County’s based rebels of David Yauyau, a Murle, unleashed their violent rebellion on migrating unarmed Lou-Nuer civilians of Walgak, killing over 100 of them, mostly children and women.

February 18, 2013 (JUBA) – Chiefs from the Lou-Nuer community of Walgak payam in Akobo county, South Sudan’s Jonglei have criticised the government for not doing enough to protect their vulnerable disarmed populations.

A group of uniformed rebels loyal to David Yauyau, joined with suspected armed Murle youth, intercepted and killed 104 civilians, mostly women and children, while they were on their seasonal migration to water sources north of Akobo county.

14 soldiers belonging to the South Sudanese army (SPLA) also died in the attack while trying to repel the attackers.

February 6, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - A Darfur rebel group urged humanitarian assistance to civilians displaced by the combats in Jebel Marra and warned the international community against the alleged arrival of a Malian Islamist group in the region.