Senior SPLM-IO official says opposition to negotiate foreign force deployment

UNMISS troops escorting the visiting UNSC delegation (invisible) after its arrival in Juba on 2 September 2016 (UNMISS photo)

September 5, 2016 (JUBA) – Mabior Garang de Mabior, chairperson of national committee for information and public relations in the opposition faction of the SPLM-IO commended the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for forcing the government under the leadership of President Salva Kiir to accept deployment of additional regional troops to the war-ravaged country. Continue reading →

South Sudan security blocks media coverage of Machar’s escape to Congo

August 19, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s security operatives have imposed restriction on media coverage of successful escape into Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of the armed opposition leader and the first vice president, Riek Machar.

JPEG - 16.7 kb
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the seizure of copies of 11 newspapers in a week by Sudanese security officials (AFP)

Machar left South Sudan over fears for his safety after government forces mounted a military offensive hunting for him after he fled the capital Juba when fighting broke out between 8-11 July. President Salva Kiir later sacked him as vice-president and replaced him with Taban Deng Gai, one of his senior officials in his movement before falling out with him after failing appointment of oil ministry.

South Sudanese government which had been on the offensive, trying to hunt him down in the bush where he had been hiding said on Friday that it was not aware of Machar’s whereabouts.

“[No] one knows where he is, whether he left South Sudan or still inside the country. Those who say he left the country should be the ones you should talk to,” information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, told reporters on Friday in Juba.

He was reacting to media reports quoting United Nations sources in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York about the departure of Machar from South Sudan and his subsequent arrival to Congo on Wednesday.

Minister Lueth also said the changes, in which the president appointed Taban Deng Gai in place of Machar was an internal matter of armed opposition leadership and it was up to them to decide whether or not to welcome Machar and resume his position at the presidency as the first vice president when he returns.

“The government has nothing do with the changes in leadership of the SPLM-IO, whether Riek Machar comes back or not, that is an internal issue of the IO,” said Lueth.

Media covering Machar’s departure from the country where troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his army chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, tried to kill Machar in attacks since last month in and around Juba, have been questioned by the security personnel to say the source of information

Observers and security analysts are keen to underline that the motive of restricting media coverage about the departure of Machar from the country is to deny the public knowledge of his departure from the country.

Machar’s departure is viewed a failure by government forces instructed to hunt him, many of whom claimed he was barricaded and it was a matter of time before he could surrender or get killed.

(ST)

Machar in DR Congo cared for by authorities: UN

August 19, 2016 (JUBA) – United Nations headquarters in New York has revealed that its peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo airlifted the former First Vice President, Riek Machar, from the South Sudan-DRC border and transported him into the interior part of Congo on Wednesday.

JPEG - 23.7 kb
Machar speaks on a mobile phone after an interview with Reuters in Kenya’s capital Nairobi July 8, 2015

Continue reading →

How the Ethiopia protests were stifled by a coordinated internet shutdown

By Quartz
August 16, 2016

Nearly 100 deaths and thousands of arrests have been reported inEthiopia over the week, as part of protests against the marginalization and persecution of the Oromos and Amharas, Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups. But the attacks and arrests may not have been the only forms of retribution carried out by the Ethiopian government in its crackdown against protesters. Continue reading →

Machar relocated to a neighbouring country: Spokesperson


August 17, 2016 (JUBA) – Riek Machar, former South Sudanese first vice president and leader of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), has been “successfully” relocated to a neighbouring country after more than one month of battling President Salva Kiir’s forces in the capital, Juba, and around it, his spokesperson has announced. Continue reading →

It’s official: Hillary Clinton makes history

By Stephen Collinson and MJ Lee, CNN

Updated 7:42 PM ET, Tue July 26, 2016

Philadelphia (CNN)Democrats made Hillary Clinton the first female presidential nominee of a major party in the nation’s history on Tuesday, shattering one of the last remaining glass ceilings in American politics.

The former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state was formally installed as the party nominee to take on Donald Trump on an emotional night at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.
Clinton will formally accept the nomination on Thursday night, before embarking on an intense fall campaign with polls showing her clash with Republican nominee Trump is, for now, too close to call.
California AG: Democrats 'on the path' to unity

California AG: Democrats ‘on the path’ to unity 04:11
As part of the ongoing push to bring Democrats together following repeated shows of dissent from disenchanted Sanders supporters, Sanders addressed the convention and moved for Clinton to be acclaimed the party nominee.
“I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States,” he said.

Continue reading →