SUDAN: WFP concern after Barurud security
incident
The WFP on Wednesday contacted the government
of Sudan to express concern about a security incident in Barurud, northwestern
Bahr al-Ghazal, in which bombs dropped from an Antonov aircraft narrowly
missed a World Food Programme (WFP) Hercules as it approached for an emergency
humanitarian food drop. The incident happened at about 9 am local time
and the WFP air crew immediately aborted the drop, spokeswoman Brenda Barton
told IRIN. An unknown number of bombs fell very close to the drop site,
where two WFP staff were on the ground, and a security team went in later
in the day to investigate the situation and evacuate the agency's staff,
she said.
WFP immediately informed the government, expressing its concern and its hope that this was a one-off event. Any repetition of such a serious incident had the potential to put the whole humanitarian operation in jeopardy, Barton said. The agency is currently at the peak of its air operations in southern Sudan, flying a total of 15 aircraft and moving about 300 mt of food per day, in an effort to bridge the hunger gap between now and the next potential harvest in October/November. WFP planned to preposition a total of 82 mt of food for people expected to be fleeing to Barurud from recent fighting between government troops and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), according to Barton. After Wednesday's incident, the agency would be taking strict security measures on travel into this area, she added. [for more details, see separate IRIN report of 8 June headlined: SUDAN: Close call for WFP in Bahr al-Ghazal bombing"]
SUDAN: EU calls for reinvigorated IGAD peace talks
The European Union (EU) on Friday called for the Government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to immediately stop hostilities in order to create a conducive atmosphere for negotiations to end the 18-year civil war. It also encouraged Kenya, in its capacity as chair of the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) committee for Sudan, to press ahead with its fellow IGAD members to reinvigorate the peace process, which has not made much progress so far.
In a press statement that reflected on the IGAD peace talks in Nairobi on 2 June, which were attended by both President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and SPLM/A leader John Garang, the EU called on both parties "to engage themselves in a continuous and sustained negotiation towards a just and lasting political settlement." In this regard, the EU considered it "essential" that "a comprehensive ceasefire effectively monitored by observers accepted by both sides be promoted as a matter or urgency" within the IGAD process.
SUDAN: Minister admits to loss of Raga
Minister of External relations Mustafa Usman Isma'il on Wednesday admitted that the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) had captured the towns of Raga and Deim Zubier in Western Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, the 'Khartoum Monitor' newspaper reported on Thursday. SPLA spokesman Yasr Arman said the rebel movement had captured all of western bah al-Ghazal, opening up a lucrative trade corridor to the neighbouring Central African Republic and also offering access to Darfur regions in western Sudan, where people have their own grievances with the government in Khartoum, the BBC reported.
Isma'il called for intensive mobilisation of government-allied forces to recapture the areas, stating that the government would adhere to "the agenda of war" being practised by SPLA leader John Garang, the report said. The minister also said he had provisionally taken over the duties of the Peace Advisory to President Umar Hasan al-Bashir; this follows Bashir's recent sacking of his three-member team of peace advisers: Mutrif Sidiq and Joseph Lasu, and the ministerial-level presidential adviser for peace affairs, Makki Ali Balayil.
Isma'il said in a press conference this week that the SPLM/A had used regional peace talks under the Inter-Governmental Authority on development (IGAD) as a mechanism to make the international community consider it was working towards peace while not showing any flexibility on the issues. He said the coming months would see a wider campaign to explain the government position on the question of southern Sudan and expose SPLM/A procrastination in successive rounds of peace talks in order to "isolate" the rebel movement within the international community, the official SUNA news agency reported on Thursday.
SUDAN: Pro-government militias in mobilisation drive
President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has vowed to foil what he called a southern rebel attempt to seize Wau, the capital of Bahr al-Ghazal, and set up its own state rich in oil revenues, according to news reports. The country's Popular Defence Forces, formed in 1989, have announced a general state of mobilisation and alert, calling on all the government-allied 'mujahidin' (Islamic fighters) to gather quickly in their bases throughout the country, according to Sudanese television. The commander of the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), Maj-Gen Paulino Matib, has also called for the mobilisation of his militias to resist attacks on garrison towns, including Wau; and to defend the government-controlled oilfields in southern Sudan, AFP reported on Tuesday. In addition, the pro-government Sudan Students' Union has declared its willingness to raise brigades to proceed to the frontline in the cause of 'jihad', or holy war, the report added.
KENYA: WFP denies rising food-related tension in Dadaab
The WFP said on Friday it had no knowledge of a reported threat by refugees in Dadaab refugee camps, northeastern Kenya, to stage a hunger strike in protest at a reduction in regular food rations. A general food distribution had this week been completed in the camp, and the Nairobi office of WFP would have heard of any such action if it existed, an official told IRIN on Friday. The refugees - among them Somalis, Ethiopians, Sudanese, Rwandans and Zanzibaris - had threatened to go on hunger strike in protest at their rations being slashed by one-third, with a resultant increase in malnutrition among refugee children, the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) reported on Thursday. Refugees had been quoted as saying that they felt discriminated against because UNHCR was denying them the conditions that were offered to refugees in Europe, the report added.
There was a refugee protest of two days' duration in mid-May because there was no wheat flour available, due to resource limitations, but there was no serious word of any renewed threat of late, WFP told IRIN. There were problems with the food pipeline for the refugees in Dadaab, partly because of a weak donor response to a WFP alert in early May but also as a result of the generalised drought emergency in Kenya, and the wider Horn of Africa region, this year, officials said. WFP planned to meet UNHCR officials on Monday, 11 June, to consider its approach to the provision of food in Dadaab, they added.
UGANDA: Rebel UNRF recruiting child soldiers
Rebels of the United National Rescue Front (UNRF) have been recruiting child soldiers from 12-13 years of age in Yumbe and Arua districts of northwestern Uganda over the past year, the semi-official 'New Vision' newspaper reported on Thursday. The paper cited a captive of the rebel group detained by the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) in Arua as saying that he was aware of two recruitment centres in Yumbe and one in Arua. The captive said the recruitment had begun in March 2000, and that recruits were taken first to Izodri detachment in Arua before being moved on to a UNRF base in Rojo (4.53 N; 30.5E), Western Equatoria, South Sudan.
The Uganda National Rescue Front II (UNRF-II) renewed activity in March 1998, according to Human Rights Watch. It and other armed opposition groups in northwest Uganda - like the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) - regrouped after defeats in early 1997 and continued to operated from rear bases in South Sudan, it stated. The inter-agency Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is due to launch the first ever global report on the issue in Johannesburg, South Africa, and at UN headquarters in New York, USA, on Tuesday, 12 June.
Meanwhile, local government officials and Ugandan army officers had held "a historic face-to-face meeting" with commanders of the LRA in Awiny, 15 km north of Gulu, to explain the nature and purpose of the government's amnesty law, Radio Uganda reported on Tuesday. Rebel commander Lt-Col Onen Komjulu said that LRA leader Joseph Kony was anticipating the outcome of this dialogue, that the LRA now wanted a peaceful resolution of the insurgency and that it would release any newly-abducted civilians, the report added.
EAST AFRICA: EAC urges focus on benefits of integration
Political leaders of the East African Community (EAC) must address the region's trade imbalance with the rest of the world rather than focusing excessively on its internal imbalances, according to EAC Secretary-General Nuwe Mushega. The massive difference between the combined trade balance of the EAC and other regions or states should be of greater concern than the perception that Kenya was dominating trade in the region, to the detriment of Tanzania and Uganda, Internews quoted Mushega as saying. "We should not be quarrelling over chickens when the herd of cows is being driven away," Mushega said, quoting a proverb from his native Uganda.
Mushega said the East African partners must work towards minimising their differences and maximising the benefits of coming together. The last three years had been taken up with conceptualisation and preparation phase of the EAC, he said. "The period ahead is to focus on the implementation of the Treaty in delivering the tangible benefits of regional integration to the people, Internews quoted Mushega as saying.
[ENDS]
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