Rights Group Protests the Invitation of S. Sudan President to the United States, Calls for Demonstration

US President Barack Obama (right) with South Sudan’s President Salva kiir (left). Photo: Getty Images/Pool

US President Barack Obama (right) with South Sudan’s President Salva kiir (left). Photo: Getty Images/Pool

Washington, DC, (SSNA) — South Sudanese rights agency, the Alliance for South Sudanese in Diaspora (ASSD), has announced its objection against the invitation of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayayrdiit, by the United States President Barack Obama to attend the 2014 US-Africa Leaders Submit scheduled to take place on August 6.

The conference comes after more than seven months of fighting in South Sudan.

The Alliance for South Sudanese in Diaspora is deeply troubled by the invitation of the leader of the war-torn nation, according to the group’s press statement obtained by the South Sudan News Agency. Continue reading →

S. Sudan accuses Ethiopia of “arming” rebels

1

Soldiers from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) soldiers at Jonglei’s Bor airport after they re-captured the town from rebel forces in January 2014 (AFP)

Soldiers from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) soldiers at Jonglei’s Bor airport in after they re-captured the town from rebel forces in January 2014 (AFP)

The army chief of general staff, Gen. Paul Malong Awan, said there were some “unusual” movements within South Sudan’s borders, but declined to name countries allegedly involved in dealing with the rebels.

“We have not reach that level of pointing figures but where they get ammunition and new guns?” Awan said.

“I believe that something unusual is happening,” added the army chief who maintained that government forces fully controlled Nasir, a strategic Upper Nile state town claimed by both sides on Sunday. Continue reading →

Malaysian plane reportedly shot down in Ukraine near Russian border

1

Emergencies Ministry members work at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in Grabovo, Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. Maxim Zmeyev / Reuters

A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, Interfax cited an aviation industry source as saying on Thursday.

Malaysia Airlines confirmed on its Twitter feed that it had lost contact with Flight MH17 that was traveling from Amsterdam, adding that “the last known position was over Ukrainian airspace.”

Malaysia Airlines also said in a statement that it received notification from Ukrainian air traffic control that it lost contact with the plane, a Boeing 777, about 31 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border. Continue reading →

Yemen Extradites Ethiopian Opposition Official to Addis Ababa

1An exiled Ethiopian opposition leader with British citizenship, who was sentenced to death in absentia, has been extradited to Addis Ababa, according to his group.

Andargachew Tsige, secretary-general of Ginbot 7 (labelled a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government), was arrested while in transit through Yemen last month.

Britain has expressed “deep concern” about his fate.

“Andargachew has been given for slaughter,” Ginbot 7 said in a statement on Friday, warning Yemen that it had made a “historic mistake”. Tsige is Ethiopian-born with British citizenship. Continue reading →

Save Anywaa Boys

By Okoth Owity Opap

Hundreds of Anyuaks’ boys who miss one testicle during birth are thrown into rivers. This cultural belief leads to drowning hundreds of Anyuaks’ boys for centuries. Odok Obang Lero is an Anyuak student who went to medical school in Australia. Lero majored in Medical Laboratory Science, and he graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2012. He said he is a medical scientist who diagnoses diseases in a laboratory. Continue reading →

Tewodros Bahru: Ethiopia’s prosecutor from hell is in America

June 17, 2014

Under the brutal rule of the TPLF, courts are key instruments of repression. This is not an allegation. It is rather a well-documented and substantiated fact widely known across the world. One of the worst crimes the TPLF has committed in the last two decades is using fake laws, Kangaroo courts, unjustly ruthless “prosecutors” and “judges” to silence and torment anyone opposed to its criminal tyranny. Continue reading →

Ethiopia’s Police State: The Silencing of Opponents, Journalists and Students Detained

By Paul O’Keeffe

Global Research

Detention under spurious charges in Ethiopia is nothing new. With the second highest rate of imprisoned journalists in Africa[1] and arbitrary detention for anyone who openly objects to the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime’s despotic iron fist, the Western backed government in Addis Ababa is a dab hand at silencing its critics. Continue reading →

Land grabbing and forced evictions in the Ogaden

Ismail Mohamed Ismail

Gambella, a province located in western Ethiopia is currently host to Africa’s largest farming lands sale.  Millions of hectares of Ethiopia’s most productive agricultural lands are being transferred to foreign investors at basement prices.Transfer of land has been accompanied by the displacement of hundreds of thousands of native Gambellans –  the vast majority of which are forcibly relocated in to settlement camps under the pretext of the government’s infamous Villagisation Program; a program whose alleged purpose is to provide relocated masses with basic resources, infrastructure and government support.[i] Instead, communities whose livelihoods once consisted of small-scale subsistence farming are now forced to depend on food aid and government hand-outs. Any opposition to land acquisitions is met with intimidation, often in the form of imprisonment, beatings and torture. Continue reading →

A young Nation faces a lot of problems

By Okoth  Owity Opap

A young nation lacks political ability to solve its political dispute peacefully and democratically. This leads to violence, death and civil war. South Sudan became an independence state on July 9, 2011. It took 50 years for South Sudan to get independence from Sudan government. In 2005, Peace agreement was signed to end the civil war in Sudan.  Immediately, the young country gets in troubles. President Salva Kirr has failed to build institutions that support development, effectiveness, accountability, or transparency. But his administration has been engaging in corruption, nepotism, tribalism and arbitrary arrest, according to Sudantribune website. These policies have created division within the government, political party and among communities in the country.   Continue reading →