This Week in South Sudan – Week 44

Monday 26 October

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will deploy a 10-member assessment mission to South Sudan following reports of rights abuses.
• The SPLM/A (IO) signed the agreement on security arrangements during a transitional period,despite their earlier refusal to do so last month at the security workshop in Addis Ababa.
  • The minutes of Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Workshop.

Wednesday 28 October

• South Sudan Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin rejected the finding of AU’s Commission of Inquiry report and remains insistent that an alleged coup bid started the conflict.
• About 200 shops in Wau town in Western Bahr al Ghazal have been closed due to declining purchase power.
• The opposition group from Western Equatoria state, Revolutionary Movement For National Salvation (REMNASA) and the SPLM (IO) signed an agreement to merge in Addis Ababa.
• BBC: ‘South Sudan’s shattered dream’
• The Guardian: ‘South Sudan: ‘a level of human suffering I have never seen anywhere else’’

Thursday 29 October

• Final Reportof the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan.
  • The New York Times: ‘Rape and Cannibalism Cited Among South Sudan’s Horrors’
  • The Guardian: ‘South Sudan civil war inquiry details torture and forced cannibalism’
  • Al Jazeera: ‘Report: Mass graves, rape and cannibalism in South Sudan’
  • BBC: ‘Rape and cannibalism in South Sudan, African Union says’
  • Radio Tamazuj: ‘Summary of the AU panel of inquiry’s recommendations for South Sudan’
• 18 UN peacekeepers were freed after being detained by rebels affiliated with the SPLA (IO) north of Malakal, Upper Nile state. UNMISS later carried out a successful extraction operation securing the release of the 13 UN contractors who were still held hostage.

Friday 30 October

• Riek Machar and the head of the AU high-level representative, former Malian president Alpha Oumer Konera, met in Addis Ababa to discuss the implementation of the peace agreement.
• The Guardian: ‘The unarmed civilians bringing peace to South Sudan’
• Amnesty International: ‘A time for justice in South Sudan’

Saturday 31 October

• A new rebel group, Tiger Faction New Forces (TFNF) has been formed in protest of the presidential establishment of the 28 new states. The group later claimed control of Manyo county, Upper Nile state, establishing Wedokona town as their headquarter. The group announced they would lay down their weapons and negotiate if the government cancelled the establishment of the 28 new states.

Sunday 1 November

• Radio Tamazuj: Explaining the South Sudan peace agreement:
  • Part 17: ‘Will Juba be demilitarized?’
  • Part 18: ‘Who will decide on security reform?
  • Part 19: ‘Will people be allowed to go home?’
  • Part 20: ‘What is the Special Reconstruction Fund?’