Tag: South Sudan
South Sudan: SPLM/SPLA are directing less movement of UNMISS in the country (26.07.2016)

UNICEF response to South Sudan refugee situation – Media Update (28.07.2016)

Following an inter-agency assessment mission comprising of UNHCR, Office of Prime Minister, UNICEF and other partners, a new settlement is to be opened in Yumbe district.
KAMPALA, Uganda, July 28, 2016/APO/ —
Situation
- According to UNHCR, 2,442 South Sudanese refugees arrived on July 25, 2016 through Elegu, Moyo, Lawmo, Arua and Kiryandongo. Total number of arrivals since 17th July 2016 is 37,890.
- 73% of all new arrivals are children; 27,660 have arrived in the last 3 weeks.
- Following an inter-agency assessment mission comprising of UNHCR, Office of Prime Minister, UNICEF and other partners, a new settlement is to be opened in Yumbe district. This settlement could potentially host up to 100,000 refugees.
- UNICEF has delivered 23 large tents to support services in health, child protection and education at Elegu, in Nyumanzi, Pagirinya, Rhino Camp, Maaji III and Oraba border in Arua.
UNICEF Humanitarian response
Health & Nutrition:
Immunisation: between 19-26th July 2016, 5,501 children (4,487 under five, 1,014 above five years) were immunised against Polio; 11,536 children (4,313 under-fives, 7,223 above 5 years but below 15 years old) were immunised against measles. UNICEF is supporting the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunisation and district authorities to ensure that all children who arrive at the various border points are immunised. Adjumani and Arua districts have enough vaccines to support the response. UNICEF and Ministry of Health have a target of 15,000 under-fives for polio and 30,000 children below 15 years for measles immunisation.
- Nutrition: In the past 4 days, there has been an increase in the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) among the refugees arriving at Elegu Reception Centre from 3.6% to 6.2%, an indication that the current arrivals have trekked longest or furthest.
- From 18-26 July 2016, 4,331 children under-five were screened for nutrition and out of these, 270 are malnourished (GAM monitoring representing 6.2%). UNICEF and partner Concern Worldwide are monitoring the situation and will continue to assess the nutritional status of new arrivals.
- 24,191 under-five children have been de-wormed to boost their immunity while 4,815 have received Vitamin A supplements to retain nutrient contents of food and facilitate normal growth.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
- Five boreholes have been installed in Pagirinya refugee settlement to provide safe water to the new arrivals by UNICEF through Danish Refugee Council and Water Missions. 2,500 refugees are benefiting from boreholes.
- UNICEF has delivered water, sanitation and hygiene supplies (10 cartons of laundry soap, 10 boxes of aqua tabs each contains 14,000 tabs, 3 mobilets, 10 handwashing facilities, 2 tins of 50 kgs of chorine power, 5 sets of latrine digging kits, 30 garbage plastic bags, 100 pieces of child potty, 20 heavy duty gloves, 20 gumboots, 20 hard brushes) to Elegu.
- 4, 000 litres of Effective Micro-Organism (EMO) have been delivered to Adjumani to be used in Nyumanzi, Elegu reception center and Pagirinya settlements. EMO is a solution that is used for stench elimination and sludge reduction in latrines.
- UNICEF is supporting Water Mission Uganda (WMU) to deploy additional hygiene promoters to sensitize/pass on good hygiene and sanitation practices to refugees at the Elegu reception center.
- A pivate drilling company is on standby to drill 20 new boreholes once the new settlement area is cleared and ready to receive new arrivals.
- Education:
- Five tents of 72 square meters and 1 tent of 24 square meters have been delivered and mounted at Pagirinya Feeder School in Pagirinya Refugee Settlement. 1,500 new arrivals have been registered at the school which teaches pupils from Primary one-four.
- Windle Trust, a partner with UNHCR has recruited 31 additional teachers to teach at Pagirinya Feeder School. The selection of teachers for the settlements is done by Windle Trust, UNICEF and district education officer.
- Seven tents have been delivered and mounted at Maaji III refugee settlement. The school has a population of 3,500 in Primary one-six. The school was started in April this year.
- 13 replenishment kits containing scholastic materials like books, chalk, pencils were delivered to Adjumani District Education Officer.
Child Protection:
- Tracing and Family reunification: UNICEF through its partners, Save the Children (using CPIMS) and Uganda Red Cross has registered 139 separated children and 411 unaccompanied children in Adjumani and 1,550 separated children and 71 unaccompanied children registered by Save the Children in Kiryandongo. Both Save the Children and Uganda Red Cross are engaged in Family Tracing and reunification at the collection points, the reception and transit centres and the settlements and children are being reunified. Family tracing was done for 14 (6 female and 8 male) missing children at Elegu collection centre and reunified on spot with their families. The partners are conducting awareness rasing on child protetcion, child care and safety for new arrivals to avoid further separation and abuse of children.
- Support and monitoring the child help desk where child related cases are reported and services provided accordingly.
- Psychosocial support and counselling: 2,000 children have been registered at and are attending Child Friendly Space (CFS) activities in the CFS constructed in Nyumanzi refugee settlement by Save the Children with support from UNICEF, 1,066 have been registered and attending CFS activities in Kiryandongo at a child friendly space constructed by TPO.
- All children that enter through the border points are receiving specialised psychosocial support to help deal with trauma they experience. The counselling is done under the guidance of care givers. At the child friendly spaces, experts are using play as a form of therapy. Children are encouraged to play both indoor and outdoor games. The outdoor games include football, netball, slides and sand boxes while indoor activities include story telling, drawing, chess, snakes and ladders, Ludo and omweso.
- Behaviour Change support:UNICEF via Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS), is rolling out community engagement activities in the emergency districts. Currently URCS is conducting a behaviour change rapid assessment to inform the specific interventions to be carried out.
Alongside this, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), infant and young children feeding and immunization are being adapted and translated into the relevant local languages and will be distributed during interpersonal communication/social mobilisation activities. A social mobiliser’s message kit has been shared with all partners in order to disseminate key messages on Health, WASH, Nutrition, Child Protection & Education.
South Sudan Crisis: Useful forged CIA-Letter of overthrowing the TGNU, Sworn-in Gen. Taban Deng Gai as FVP; Dr. Riek Machar at unknown destination and silencing the will for greater AU Force in South Sudan!

There are those day we’re the intelligence are to real or just too good to be true. Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America had apparently a conspired plan to overthrow the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU) of South Sudan with President Salva Kiir and FVP Dr. Riek Machar. As the letters state in 2015 and 2016; just as the forged letters from SPLM to directly attack SPLM-IO bases as Dr. Riek Machar have fled his home and government position in Juba after the clashes around 7-9 July in the capital.
It is not like US doesn’t have a history of overthrowing and instating puppets in other nations. That is part of their foreign policy of late, neither if they like it or not. It has been for better or worse, even created worse dictators then the ones they have brought down; or like in modern times created power-vacuum in the nations they have brought soldiers into; which last and last as the local forces and militias fight each other as the American armies flee for their unpopular war in the nations and also the cost at home for the American President.
But this isn’t about that, this is how the manufactured letters are setting standard and edge on diplomacy between South Sudan and United States. As the US are part of the Troika, which is United Kingdom (UK) and Norway. They we’re all putting their stakes into the leadership as they wanted to stop the civil war between Khartoum and Juba as the decades of war could stop with a peaceful transition and new government structure of the greater Sudan and the South Sudan. Still, the years after independence have bloody with power-struggle, internally displaced persons and migration to neighbour countries. This is putting an edge on the letter as Dr. Riek Machar haven’t been long in Juba, just putting his men into the Government and Cabinet. Together with stating the codes of the Peace Agreement of 2015 where the parties of SPLM-IO and SPLA/M works for unity and progress of the world’s youngest nation!

Just as the news of Gen. Taban Deng Gai of SPLM-IO have not only been asked for being fired as Minister and kicked out of the party of Dr. Riek Machar; still within hours of that he we’re sworn-in as First Vice-President of the Republic of South Sudan. That is a blow for the SPLM-IO, but the leadership of SPLM-IO should know that Gen. Taban Deng Gai had ambition; even I knew as he spoke in 2015 that he would like a greater role in South Sudan. Apparently, the offer from SPLM we’re too good to turn down.
While that was happening, the news of a CIA letter and the release of it happen online. It just had to happen as the Dr. Riek Machar is hiding in an unknown place. The CIA letter talking about planned overthrow of the government; just what a government need to pull the strings and use force against an enemy, even use the enemies as pushing away other fractions that are troubling for the government. So if that was the goal of the new TGNU of South Sudan. That would been the gift and the worthy price as they also could condemn one of their major donors of acts against sovereign will. Not only use it as a tool against accepting African Union or bigger Peacekeeper Force in the nation. Something that interferes with the SPLA already!

But take a look!
News from 2012:
“In a response to written questions from The Washington Post, the U.S. Africa Command said that it would not comment on “specific operational details.” (…) “We do, however, work closely with our African partners to facilitate access, when required, to conduct missions or operations that support and further our mutual security goals,” the command said. Surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations, it added, are “simply a tool we employ to enable host nation militaries to better understand the threat picture.” (Whitlock, 2012).
Important information about troops in Juba:
“In order to keep the Embassy open, on July 12 a small contingent of U.S. military personnel deployed to Juba to assist the Embassy in temporarily bolstering its security and assisting with the departure of non-emergency personnel. The additional U.S. troops in Juba and those dispatched to neighboring countries are there only to protect the Embassy and American citizens who are leaving South Sudan because of the conflict. Citizens of Juba can expect to see a rotation in military personnel during the week of July 18. This rotation of troops is to replace not reinforce the number of military personnel. All of the additional troops will return home when the need for additional security no longer exists”(U.S. Department of State, 2016).
Mark Toner the U.S. Spokesman said this today:
“Any suggestion that the United States has done so or will do so is false, baseless, and not in the interest of peace in South Sudan” (…) “Why would someone circulate a document like that, because I know your listeners understand it is a ridiculous and untrue assertion. I think someone is trying to hurt the historic and deep relationship between the United States and South Sudan” (Radio Tamzuj, 2016).

If you still believe the letters and take them as true facts. Then your conspiracy theories are too deep and your mind is already set to the fiction. There are true as stated US have toppled governments before, but this was one we’re unlikely. The question that should be asked who would earn political coinage on the letters and their rhetoric as a quest to questions the rulers right now? Who would gain political and military advantage of using a made up enemy?
If you answer those, you might be close to the real deal and the limitation of coverage on the matter. As the crisis is not over, even with the change of FVP, the answer from SPLM-IO shows there are more things to come. Hopefully not a UPDF on steroids defending SPLA and President Kiir; but that has happen before and the oil-money from South Sudan is pleasing the cow-farmer from Uganda. Peace.
Reference:
Radio Tamazuj – ‘U.S. State Department says report about CIA secret operations ‘baseless’’ (27.07.2016) link: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/article/us-state-department-says-report-about-cia-secret-operations-baseless
U.S. Department of State – ‘United States Reassures Support to South Sudan (17.07.2016) link: http://m.state.gov/md260155.htm
Whitlock, Craig – ‘U.S. expands secret intelligence operations in Africa’ (12.07.2012) link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-expands-secret-intelligence-operations-in-africa/2012/06/13/gJQAHyvAbV_story.html
Al Jazeera’s exclusive interview with Riek Machar in South Sudan (Youtube-Clip)
Press Release: Switzerland Responds to New Humanitarian Needs in South Sudan (27.07.2016)

Switzerland has decided to provide an additional CHF 2 million to alleviate the suffering of the local population.
BERN, Switzerland, July 27, 2016 – In South Sudan thousands of people have fled the recent hostilities between rival political factions. These new outbreaks of violence have compounded the already considerable humanitarian needs in the country. Switzerland has decided to provide an additional CHF 2 million to alleviate the suffering of the local population.
Switzerland is concerned about the fate of the civilian population of South Sudan following the outbreak of hostilities at the beginning of July 2016 in the capital Juba and other parts of the country. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will release CHF 2 million to help the victims of this new wave of violence.
Half of this amount will be channelled to the South Sudan Common Humanitarian Fund, to which Switzerland has been contributing since 2014. The funds will help finance the operations in the SDC’s three priority sectors in this country: food security, water and the protection of civilians. The other million will be allotted to the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist efforts to fight food insecurity, which is affecting over four million people in the country.
This new outbreak of violence is exacerbating the already dramatic humanitarian situation. South Sudan suffers from extreme poverty and a civil war, which has been undermining it since December 2013.
South Sudan, which is the world’s youngest state, is one of the priority intervention zones of Swiss Humanitarian Aid, whose budget for this country in 2016 amounted to approximately CHF 18 million before this new contribution.
South Sudan is also a priority country of the FDFA’s Human Security Division (HSD), which has been working to implement the peace agreement concluded in August 2015. The HSD is also involved in the reconciliation efforts and in strengthening local government in collaboration with the traditional authorities. The budget for its peace promotion activities totals about CHF 1 million per year.
Taban Deng Gai sworn in as South Sudan vice president (Youtube-Clip)
“General Taban Deng Gai, has been sworn in as the new South Sudanese first vice president after president Salva Kiir replaced Riek Machar, following a sharp surge in violence between the government and opposition fighters. Taban was a chief negotiator on behalf of Machar’s SPLM-IO group in the talks that led to last year’s peace deal” (Kenya NTV, 2016).
South Sudan Republican Decree No. 280/2016: “Appointment of the First Vice President Gen. Taban Deng Gai replacement for Dr. Riek Machar (25.07.2016)


Letter: SPLM/A-IO Members of National Liberation Council, Political Bureau and State Governors Reject Replacement of Dr. Riek Machar from posisiton of First Vice President of Republic of South Sudan (23.07.2016)


Kiir has received the letter of nominating Taban Deng Gai from the SPLM IO in Juba as the First Vice (Youtube-Clip)
“Kiir has received the letter of nominating Taban Deng Gai from the SPLM-IO in Juba as the First Vice President acting in place of Machar who fled Juba following the fighting of July 07th-11th 2016.
Machar was last week appealed to by President Kiir to come to Juba within the expired 48 hours weekend so that they continue with the peace agreement implementation” (Peter Louis, 2016)

