JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – The South Sudan government said on Saturday that the seizure of a UN arms shipment by security agents confirms earlier suspicions over the conduct of “some individuals” within the world body.

South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, airlifted journalists to Rumbek, the capital of Lakes state, the site where the confiscated arms and ammunition are being held.

The arms were found inside 12 trucks belonging to the UN Mission in South Sudan en route to Unity state capital Bentiu, and had been declared as “general goods”. Continue reading →

By Obang Jobi (USA) – The Anywaa communities in both Ethiopia and Sudan (now South Sudan) are bordering to the most hostile communities in Africa. Since 1955 until 2005, Sudan, like most African countries, has experienced three consecutive civil wars. The first civil war (Anyanya) erupted in 1955 and ended in 1972. The peace agreement which was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1972 did last long. The discontented former Anyanya I leaders took up arms again in 1975 and formed Anyanya II. Continue reading →

The hijacker – who has been arrested – waited for the pilot to go to the toilet to lock himself in the cockpit. He was unarmed. He has requested asylum in Switzerland.

The airline said in a statement that all 202 passengers and crew were safe.

Geneva airport, which was closed for a time, has now reopened. Continue reading →

(Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post) – Neamin Zeleke, managing director of Ethiopian Satelite Television, suspects that the Ethiopian government has employed spyware to identify opposition supporters

By Craig Timberg – Mesay Mekonnen was at his desk, at a news service based in Northern Virginia, when gibberish suddenly exploded across his computer screen one day in December. A sophisticated cyber­attack was underway. But this wasn’t the Chinese army or the Russian mafia at work.

Instead, a nonprofit research lab has fingered government hackers in a much less technically advanced nation, Ethi­o­pia, as the likely culprits, saying they apparently used commercial spyware, essentially bought off the shelf. This burgeoning industry is making surveillance capabilities that once were the exclusive province of the most elite spy agencies, such as National Security Agency, available to governments worldwide. Click here to watch the video Continue reading →

Displaced South Sudanese on the Nile after fleeing violence in Bor, where the UN said rebels had been ransacking property in the town. Photo: Nichole Sobecki/AFP/Getty

By Ashraf Shazly, AFP – South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar confirmed Friday that rebel forces had lost control of the key northern oil town of Bentiu, but vowed his fighters would continue their battle against the government.

“We withdrew from Bentiu, but it was to avoid fighting in the streets and save civilian lives. We fight on, we will continue the battle,” Machar told AFP by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location in the country.
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By JASON STRAZIUSO and ELIAS MESERET, JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – Negotiators from South Sudan’s two warring sides arrived Wednesday in Ethiopia for peace talks, and a U.N. official urged both forces to bring the world’s newest country “back from the brink.”

Fighting continued in Bor, a gateway city to the capital of Juba, a government official said. Bor is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Juba. Continue reading →