



SPLM/SPLA(IO) on Arrest of Commander Dr. Riek Machar (15.12.2016)









So far, 1,932 children have been released by armed forces: 1,755 in 2015 and 177 this year.
JUBA, South Sudan, December 16, 2016 – According to new figures released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), some 1,300 children were recruited by armed forces and armed groups in 2016, bringing the total number of children used in conflict since 2013 to more than 17,000.
“Since the first day of this conflict, children have been the ones most devastatingly affected by the violations,” said Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
“Now, as the fighting intensifies – and despite repeated pledges by all to end child recruitment – children are once again being targeted,” she added.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and SPLA in Opposition have both signed agreements with the UN in order to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children in the conflict.
So far, 1,932 children have been released by armed forces: 1,755 in 2015 and 177 this year.
Nonetheless, UNICEF reports that violations against children have continued to occur since 2013, including 2,342 who have been killed or maimed, 3,090 who have been abducted, and 1,130 sexually assaulted. There have also been 303 attacks or military use of schools and hospitals.
Since November, the UN has documented at least 50 children who have been abducted and recruited in the Greater Upper Nile region. Additional reports indicate that another 50 have been recruited in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal region and that violations against children have occurred in the Greater Equatorias area, but due to the high level of insecurity and restricted access, the UN has been unable to verify such claims.
In addition to the ongoing armed conflict, South Sudan is suffering an economic crisis that has brought inflation to more than 800 per cent, leading to widespread food insecurity and childhood malnutrition at emergency levels throughout most of the country.
UNICEF and its partners have treated 184,000 children with severe cases of malnutrition this year – an increase of 50 per cent from last year and more than 135 per cent higher from 2014.
“UNICEF’s concern is that with the prospect of increased hostilities and atrocities, the suffering that children have endured will have no end,” said Ms. Gharagozloo-Pakkala. “The children of South Sudan must no longer live under constant fear of hunger or conflict. They need sustained peace, care and support.”
South Sudan has faced ongoing challenges since a political face-off between President Salva Kiir and his Vice-President Riek Machar erupted into full blown conflict in December 2013. The crisis has produced one of the world’s worst displacement situations with immense suffering for civilians.
Despite the August 2015 peace agreement that formally ended the war, conflict and instability have also spread to previously unaffected areas in the Greater Equatoria and Greater Bahr-El-Ghazal regions of South Sudan.
The UN Mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, has been operating in the country since 2011. Just hours before it was set to expire, the Security Council this evening voted unanimously to extend the Mission’s mandate for one day and is expected to come back to the matter tomorrow afternoon.

Thousands of people continue to flee South Sudan to Uganda every day, 64% of whom are children under 18, leaving behind them tales of horrific violence.
KAMPALA, Uganda, December 15, 2016 – On the third anniversary of the outbreak of violence in South Sudan in December 2013, the Government of Uganda Office of the Prime Minister, six UN agencies and eleven humanitarian organisations in Uganda are appealing to the world to bring an end to the suffering of the South Sudanese people. With 527,472* South Sudanese refugees having fled to Uganda over the last three years, including more than 338,000* since July alone, it is vital that the international community comes together to support humanitarian organisations in delivering life-saving assistance to those who have been forced to flee their homes, and to take urgent action to find a solution to the conflict.
Thousands of people continue to flee South Sudan to Uganda every day, 64% of whom are children under 18, leaving behind them tales of horrific violence. Refugees report that armed groups operating in the Equatoria region are attacking villages, killing civilians, burning down houses, raping women and girls, and kidnapping young men and boys. People are reportedly being prevented from using major access roads out of South Sudan, forcing many to walk through the bush for days, often without access to food and water. New arrivals report that in the weeks and months ahead, they expect thousands more will follow them to Uganda.
New arrivals are provided with shelter, food, water and an environment where they can live in safety however, the humanitarian response to South Sudanese refugees in Uganda continues to face significant challenges due to chronic and severe underfunding. Currently, just 36% of the US$251 million needed for 2016 has been received. This is creating significant gaps in the response which threatens to compromise the abilities of humanitarian organisations to provide life-saving assistance and basic services.
In August, this year, a new settlement was opened in Bidibidi, Yumbe district to accommodate the thousands of new arrivals. In the space of a matter of months, humanitarian organisations have transformed Bidibidi from empty bushland in to one of the largest refugee-hosting areas in the world.
Uganda continues to show outstanding generosity and hospitality towards South Sudanese refugees, at a time when the country is hosting the highest number of refugees in its history and is receiving two additional refugee influxes from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. Uganda has maintained open borders to allow refugees to reach safety and, as part of its settlement approach, provides them with land to build new homes and grow crops. Refugees in Uganda enjoy a range of rights and freedoms that allow them to gain employment, start businesses and make positive economic contributions to their host communities.
Host communities in northern Uganda are to be particularly commended for having donated the land on which settlements hosting South Sudanese refugees are located. In recognition of the solidarity shown by host communities, as a guiding principle, approximately 30% of the humanitarian response directly benefits Ugandans through improvements to local infrastructure.
We are grateful to our donors for their contributions so far but more must be done to end the suffering of the South Sudanese people. We urge the international community, both those already engaged and new partners to the response, to expedite their contributions of funds and expertise to ensure we can meet the needs of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. With political solutions to the crisis in short supply, further efforts are needed to find long-term solutions that will allow these refugees to rebuild their lives in safety and dignity. It remains vital that those with influence over the political leadership in South Sudan use all available channels to encourage the warring factions to come together in dialogue and bring an end to the bloodshed. For the sake of the South Sudanese people, the world cannot afford to fail.
* Figures are based on biometric registrations in the Government’s Refugee Information Management System, and manual emergency registration, headcounts and wrist-banding for the emergency influx of new arrivals.







The Campaign of Defiance is dead, because the compliance has sunk the ship of Defiance that we’re ushered in with the Presidential Campaign of 2015/2016 of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and for the Presidential Candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye. The rigged and fraudulent election went down, the President since 1986 President Yoweri Museveni triggered election victory with 100% in dozens of districts and acted vicious in others; that are known opposition strongholds like Kampala, Wakiso and others. Therefore the FDC and Besigye should have and could have grievances on the methods of suppression of the votes.
Besigye’s campaign of defiance was a grand idea in the darkness of an oppressive regime under the National Resistance Movement. The NRM has for decades and during previous elections used public funds, used the state and security organizations to spread fear instead of free and fair election. As well as hiring fellow cronies in the Electoral Commission that we’re working directly on orders for the Movement instead of securing the popular vote, as well as using the Police Force and the Army to show where the loyalty should be, also gifts of soaps, food and small fees to take part of rallies in the districts. This has been NRMs way of spreading loyalty and fear mixed together.
So the Defiance campaign was a good idea, to defy the rigged system and state apparatus that has eaten the whole plate and only follows orders of loyal cronies of Museveni. That in itself was genuine and straight-forward plan from Besigye, only if more of the citizens and the party he was apart of really believed in it. As with time the defying plans has been silenced, the fighting the machine and corrupt behaviour of the state has turned silent.

The FDC and the defiance after the failing Election Petition of the Go-Forward and Amama Mbabazi in Supreme Court, the FDC and Besigye hasn’t had the levels of defiance in them or tried to defy the structures that validates the regime. The FDC has turned into compliance as the swearing-in of Museveni happen and the Members of Parliament we’re sworn-in after the fraudulent election. It was topped when certain MPs went into Shadow-Parliament and legitimized the Movement.
So with this the FDC themselves did comply with Museveni and his fellow cronies instead of defying the ruler. They went into the chambers made sure they got paid and later trying to follow the lead of Besigye isn’t believable. That the same men and woman who easily take the small-change at the Parliament and later goes to FDC Prayers is playing to games.
The Short-Con is the Shadow-Cabinet and validating the rule of Museveni to make sure their pockets are filled and that their MPs respectability is fixed so their families and friends are secured. But with this they are forgetting the long-term damage to be parts of Movements skin-democracy.
The Long-Con is that with the sharing parts of the skin-democracy and playing the game of the freedom fighters while not really working the cause. So the long-con is some of the FDC leadership roles right now, only patching the hurt, but not trying to rebuild.

The Defiance Campaign was about defying the Movement… something that the FDC didn’t do, which is complicated and also lacking of moral support from the FDC while he was serving time in Moroto and Luzira. They might show up to gates of the prison and even say publicly that they condemn the Police Force actions against the democratic and rights to assemble as an opposition party.
So the plan of Defiance wasn’t supposed to be one-man band, Besigye wasn’t supposed to carry it on his own. Besigye weren’t alone as we could see youths, P-10 Groups and FDC-Diaspora we’re supportive efforts. You had and still have Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Gen. David Sejusa. Still, they have very few others who have been under fire at the same level without trading their souls, there is Ingrid Turinawe and Doreen Nyanjura has fought battles without much to gain.
That the silence in general should be worrying as the Police Force are continuing to battle with Besigye, his house is still besieged and the man is monitored every movement. If he breaks the barrier and creates public excitement, than it’s straight into detention or police brutality cases towards the crowds that surge the man.
Besigye should be free, the country should be free, but the silence isn’t saving anything. The silence has settled the defiance campaign and the mentality of the defiance agenda. They didn’t build momentum enough to stop the daily life and hurt the business of the movement. The defiance didn’t stop the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) from collecting VAT or stop exports of fuel. The Defiance didn’t stop the UPDF from getting new recruits or any other possible monetary deficiency the campaign could do. Just like the shops stopping trading as the shop-keepers we’re even detained for doing so, because it hurt the taxation and trade that the Movement needs to run their merry-go-round of graft and embezzlement of public funds.
The Defiance could have worked if the FDC and Besigye had gotten the momentum and had the public will behind them, not the half-ready pile of work, sort of like the way the Police Force in Uganda picks up intelligence as they see fit in forged police case. The FDC could have used the anger and frustration of the public, the citizens who feel used.
So the May Protest this year we’re starting of profound messages that the citizens we’re on the road of pressing the government. So much we’re ready as they remembered the recent thieving of their future from the Movement yet again, the wounds we’re fresh. Still the army had been in the streets, the Police Force we’re targeting the opposition and also civil society offices we’re attacked.

The people shouldn’t be silenced as the Christmas season are in line, the FDC cannot carry this alone, not that all of them wanted the defiance; they wanted the easy compliance life of the pseudo-opposition instead of a fighting defying organization that could get rid of the militarized movement that been running it since the 1980s. That should be KEY. That should be the goal of the FDC; instead many went into legitimizing it.
So the silenced is understandable, Besigye and his trials cannot be of only him and it isn’t, but it is many who has given in and went back to business-as-usual. Besigye could have more support from the FDC NEC, but he hasn’t. They don’t have the backbone and the wish to succeed. They gave in when it was going against the grain. They we’re risking it all and couldn’t. While Besigye is again under a “treason” charge as others who are questioning the Movement; the others are walking free and without any Court Orders in their name.
It’s not like the man who took the power by the gun want to leave silent or let it go easy, he fought a brutal bush-war. Now he has a big-army and guerrillas of M23, Museveni got allies of USA and Russia dropping arms in his favour so he can suppress his people. Citizens can fight this, but they cannot only rely on Besigye. Besigye only has power if the people are behind him. If the people are working with to dismantle the regime, but the silent obedient citizens are changing an illegitimate regime. Civil disobedience and systematic effort to discontinue the regime would be true defying the Movement. Instead the silence is what is running the tides as 2017 are coming around the corner. Peace.

The Council called on all parties to lay down their arms and to take decisive steps to end violence, as a last chance for political and military leaders to avoid the resumption of war.
BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 12, 2016 – The Council adopted conclusions on South Sudan, in light of the profoundly disturbing developments in the country. The Council called on all parties to lay down their arms and to take decisive steps to end violence, as a last chance for political and military leaders to avoid the resumption of war, to spare their people further suffering and to find a just and inclusive political settlement of their differences.
The Council called upon the transitional government to uphold its responsibility for the protection of civilians and on all parties to put an end to violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law. End.
Here is the Conclusions:

















