This Week in South Sudan – Week 44

Monday 31 October

• According to the new Global Impunity Indexby The Committee to Protect Journalists, South Sudan ranks among the top five countries where journalists have been murdered with impunity in 2016.

Tuesday 1 November

• The newly emerged rebel group, the South Sudan Democratic Front (SSDF) called for the removal of the “failed and illegitimate regime of the SPLM/SPLA Party through peaceful means, armed struggle or both”.
• The Minister of Petroleum, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, has directed the Joint Operating Companies (JOCs) to reinstate all former employees who abandoned their job in the oil sector due to the civil war.
• China announced it will dispatch a 700-men strong infantry battalionas part of their peacekeeper-contribution to UNMISS in December.
• The Guardian: “Is it too dangerous for aid workers to be in South Sudan?”

Wednesday 2 November

• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the Kenyan UNMISS commander, Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki after a UN special investigation report found that the failure to protect civilians in Juba in July was due to a lack of leadership. In response, the Government of Kenya announced the immediate withdrawal of its troops from UNMISS.

  Further international and national media reports on the development:

  • The Guardian: “South Sudan peacekeeping commander sacked over ‘serious shortcomings’”
  • Foreign Policy: “N. Chief Fires His Top Peacekeeping Commander in South Sudan”
  • Reuters: “U.N. peacekeepers failed to respond to South Sudan hotel attack: inquiry”
  • Reuters: “Russia says U.N. South Sudan mission ‘in ruins’ after firing”
  • The New York Times: “As South Sudan Troops Killed and Raped, U.N. Forces Didn’t Stop Them”
  • The New York Times: “Kenya Pulling U.N. Peacekeepers From South Sudan in Protest”
  • BBC: “UN sacks South Sudan peacekeeping chief over damning report”
  • Sudan Tribune: “Government, rebels welcome dismissal of UNMISS force commander”

• SPLA soldiers and police officers reportedly killed ten civilians including women and children in a “house to house” massacre in Kalipapa village, Kwerijik Bungu Payam, west of Juba.

Thursday 3 November

• President Salva Kiir has postponed a decision to create two new states in addition to the current 28 states.
• Reportedly, government forces in Unity State have forcefully recruited at least 290 civilians. The majority of the recruits are believed to be underage children from Mayom, Rubkotna, Guit, Koch, Leer and Mayiandit counties.

Friday 4 November

• Kenyan authorities deported SPLM (IO) spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, back to South Sudan after he spoke favourably of the firing of the Kenyan UNMISS commander, Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki (see above). Gadet is a registered refugee. Human rights groups and the UN called the forced removal a violation of international law.

Sunday 6 November

• At least nine people were killed and 11 wounded in Gure, a suburb of Juba, when a unknown gunman opened fire on a crowd watching a televised English Premier League football match.