UNMISS peacekeepers repel attack on base in famine area (05.05.2017)

Between 11pm and midnight on Wednesday, the Mission’s Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in Leer town in the former Unity State came under small arms attack from the direction of the nearby Government-held town.

JUBA, South Sudan, May 5, 2017 – An attack on a United Nations base has been strongly condemned by the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), David Shearer, as being carried out with callous disregard for the lives for civilians as well as UN and humanitarian workers.

Between 11pm and midnight on Wednesday, the Mission’s Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in Leer town in the former Unity State came under small arms attack from the direction of the nearby Government-held town.

The Ghanaian company of UNMISS peacekeeping forces based there quickly and robustly returned fire, deterring the attack.

David Shearer praised the response of the Ghanaian forces for successfully repelling the attack and remaining on high alert throughout the night.

“They reacted in the best possible manner, according to the true spirit of peacekeeping. Their quick defensive action secured the safety of all of the internally displaced people who had sought UN protection adjacent to the base,” he said.

“We strongly condemn the attack, and call on all parties to the conflict to respect the sanctity of UN premises.

“We are here to protect and support the people of South Sudan. The base is located at Leer for that reason. The people are hungry and deprived as the result of the famine. However, it is clear the attackers have no consideration for their plight, given those who most desperately need help will suffer more because of a likely resulting delay of humanitarian aid,” said David Shearer.

There were no UNMISS or other casualties within the base from the attack.

Currently, there is no confirmation of which party to the conflict carried out the attack. UNMISS is continuing to investigate the incident and will examine whether the TOB needs to be further strengthened.

RDC: Lettre – “Motion de Censure contre le Gouvernment provincial du Haut-Lomami” (02.05.2017)

RDC: Communiqué de l’UDPS du 02 mai 2017

RDC: ACO – “Concerne: Suspension provisoire du vos fonctions” (29.04.2017)

VII Session Extraordinaire du CEEAC – Communique Finale du Conseil des Ministres (29.04.2017)

SPLM-IO: “Response to Reuters Article: Some African States Oppose a return by South Sudan Rebel Machar” – Wednesday April 26, 2017 (28.04.2017)

RDC: Memorandum de la Jeunesse Katumbiste du Nord Kivu au Representant Special du Secretaire General des Nations Unies en RD Congo – “Obtension de l’Abandon des Poursuites Judiciaires Contre l’Honnorable Moise Katumbi Shapwe et Son Retour au Pays” (26.04.2017)

South Sudan: Intense Fighting Around Kodok Forces Up to 25,000 People to Flee Without Humanitarian Support (27.04.2017)

The humanitarian organizations that have up until now been providing essential medical services, water, food, non-food items and shelter have had to temporarily suspend activities on the west bank of the Nile River because of the increasing insecurity.

GENEVA, Switzerland, April 27, 2017 -Over the last three days, close to 25,000 people have been displaced by intense fighting between the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Agwelek forces around the town of Kodok. The humanitarian organizations that have up until now been providing essential medical services, water, food, non-food items and shelter have had to temporarily suspend activities on the west bank of the Nile River because of the increasing insecurity.
“This is a disaster in the making, just as the demand is greatest,” said Marcus Bachmann, Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) head of mission for South Sudan. “Hospitals in the area are not operational, and water deliveries are unreliable. Yesterday no water deliveries were made to the IDPs because of the fighting. Given the scorching heat and the exposure of population to the elements, soon we will see people suffering from chronic dehydration and diarrhea as well as diseases like cholera.”

MSF had been providing emergency medical support—including at a field hospital and through two mobile units in the area—to the 13,000 displaced people who had fled fighting in the area in January. However, MSF has been forced to suspend activities because of the recent surge in violence.

Escaping the violence is difficult as positions are rapidly changing hands between the different forces, and displaced people find themselves surrounded by conflict on all sides. Without protection, many will have few other options than to leave for camps in Sudan where they can find refuge. Those who decide to go face a long and arduous journey on foot with hardly any access to food or water.

“We are calling on both parties to ensure that all civilians are protected from the fighting and provided with safe and secure access to essential humanitarian services,” Bachmann said. “As we have been forced to suspend most of our operations, we have provided runaway bags which contain essential medicines and supplies so that our staff who are with the fleeing IDPs can provide basic treatment in the field.”

With the rainy season approaching, it seems likely that the flow of people leaving for Sudan will increase as they avoid being trapped in the area.

Water remains a major concern for these new IDPs. On Tuesday, the people in and around the nearby town of Aburoc only had access to about 16,000 gallons of water per day. This is only an average of less than half a gallon per person, well below the amount needed for survival. On Wednesday, there were no deliveries of water because of the fighting. Water trucks are on hand to resume limited deliveries, but only if the situation becomes safer.

The South Sudanese Pound continue to lose value!

As the results of the instability in South Sudan, the Republic’s currency continues to be devalued and lose trust compared to the United States Dollars, as the people using it has to use more to get the services needed. The news from Juba of the amount of South Sudanese Pounds needed to exchange to US Dollars are showing the little value the currency currently have. That even in midst of years, the taxi-fares in the capital has risen 50 times from 1 SSP to 50SSP. This show’s the lacking financial structure and the fiscal policies to underline the paradigm. Certainly that is dwindling with the civil war between the government and rebels, as well as famine and use of funds to buy arms! Take a brief look!

In Juba: The South Sudanese Pounds continue to depreciate against the U.S. dollars, early this morning at Konyo Konyo Market trades were buying $100 at 21,500 SSP. Taxi drivers have also lifted the fare by charging 50 SSP for a distance that used to cost 1 SSP in 2014” (MirayaFM, 24.04.2017)

That this is the reality, proves the problems in the simplest forms, that the Republic of South Sudan, cannot keep their inflation at bay. The SSP are losing value and it happens quick. The local currency is soon worthless and the paper is more expensive, than the real value of the currency. This is the reaction to the violence, the despair and famine. The Currency is just the proof of the dire situation, as the Taxi Drivers are hurting and have to gain more money to be able to sustain their living in Juba. Therefore, this is the evidence of the issues that are in the country, by just seeing the numbers and the value of their currency. This should be so easy to grasp and understand. When the price of the same service has not only doubled or tripled, but gone up 50 times! Peace.

What do Mobutu and Museveni have in common after thirty years in power? Massive looting of their state reserves!

Museveni: My critics always forget to mention that I was democratically elected, the others were not. Everyone in Uganda can challenge me, everyone can vote, the elections are free. Not many countries have achieved what we did. One third of the seats in parliament are reserved for women, five seats for youth, five for workers, five for the disabled and 10 for the army. How many democracies with such a record do you know?” (Koelbl & Puhl, 2016).

Just as the knowledge of the all the state businesses and properties of President Museveni that he has amassed over the 31 years in power in Uganda. It reminds more and more of the state of affairs under President Mobutu. Mobutu Sese Seko was a dictator that President Museveni was proud to ouster and reinstate President Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). So that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni knows about Mobutu’s fatal fall, is certainly known.

President Museveni has gotten rid of other dictators before the fall of Mobutu, he even knew or had knowledge of the death of the plane of Juvenal Habyarimana, the plane who got shot down in April 1994, as his fellow comrade General Paul Kagame of Rwandan Patriotic Front was on the way to overthrow the current regime there. Also that the President Museveni together with President Milton Obote overthrew President Idi Amin in the late 1970s. So the current President Museveni has been involved in lots of armed change of power, he is even rumored and not verified if he had knowledge of the death of John Garang of SPLA and the South Sudan.

Still, the man who has used force and taken weapons to change history and his own fate, again and again, also to get puppets in states around. Have certainly thought of the demise of the men he got rid off. So when the stories of the last year of Mobutu sounds like this:

Mobutu’s Wealth:

For 32 years President Mobutu has treated Zaire like a toy and used its rich mineral reserves like his own private bank account. He plundered its mines, insisting their entire annual profits be transferred to personal accounts overseas” (…) ““We had to be close to the regime to do business,” admitted Mohammed Abdul, a Lebanese businessman yesterday as he fortified his shop for an expected pre-Kabila pillage by Zaire’s ruthless and brutal army. The Lebanese are hated by Zaireans who believe they colluded with President Mobutu to plunder the country’s diamonds” (Kinshasa, 1997).

Swiss assets:

The decision by the Swiss Federal Council came a day after judicial and police authorities seized his luxurious villa at Savigny near the lakeside resort of Lausanne. The 30-room mansion is estimated to have a market value of more than $5 million” (…) “After three decades of plundering the mineral wealth of his country, Mobutu is believed to have accumulated an enormous fortune. There have been persistent reports that he has stashed as much as $4 billion in Switzerland, but a government review of the country’s 400 banks last week said that none reported having accounts in his name” (Drozdiak, 1997).

Just as you think the dictator of Democratic Republic of Congo would be different than the current one in Uganda, your terribly wrong and President Museveni tries to keep it hidden, the way he is using the state reserves on himself and build his wealth. Just like President Mobutu was trying to move the money to the Swiss accounts, President Museveni has his own way.

A look into Museveni:

The way the Museveni family is paid royalties, or rent, by escrow accounts for their ownership of the title deeds of the Stanbic Bank business name in Uganda (what was once the Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda’s largest banking group) is the way it is paid for their ownership of other apparently South African or foreign-owned businesses in Uganda” (…) “These sources say that it is Stanbic Bank that is used to finance businesses like Roofings Ltd, Speke Resort Munyonyo, the J&M Hotel along the Kampala-Entebbe highway, businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba’s hotel and Kampala International University, all of which actually belong to the Museveni family” (The London Evening Post, 2012).

This is just the business side of it, it could be worse by now and they could own more pieces of all the businesses that are bailed out or even getting tax breaks by the government, because who knows the true deeds or royalties going to accounts owned by the royal Ugandan Museveni family. So the next says more about the value of the Museveni family and their estates.

Museveni’s wealth includes ranches in Rwakitura and Kisozi Uganda which accommodates over 2,000 healthy cows which produce thousands of liters of milk daily. The Uganda president makes at least Ush 100 million per month from his farm” (…) “Apart from livestock farming, Museveni has interests in real estate, hotel industry as well as transport industry. He has also invested heavily in the banking industry” (…) “The longest serving president of Uganda is estimated to be worth $ 700 million” (Venasnews, 2016).

So when you see how the Museveni family has become as wealth and rich as President Mobutu did. Mobutu had after his 30 years of dictatorship stashed away US$ 4 Billion into Swiss Bank Accounts, what is more uncertain is the total value of the 30 years President Museveni rule in Uganda. What is right now and known is the businesses that the President is involved in or having ownership in. Secondly is the knowledge of estates, as well as ranches in Uganda with livestock that the President owns. Therefore, the extended wealth of secret bank accounts and not revealed businesses could show the true value of the Museveni family.

With the knowledge of this and the sudden departure that President Museveni together with President Kagame, as they forced the dictator away in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I don’t think there will be an intervention on President Museveni from one of the neighbors. Still, the world can see the dictator protocol is kept by Museveni as he himself have crafted ways of emptying the state coffers. Therefore, that the riches, the estates and the value of Museveni have risen over the three decades in power isn’t strange. What is more worrying is how he has been able to keep is wealth and ownership.

That President Museveni wishes to look like a hardworking rancher and that he works for his fortune. The yields are coming from hard-work and dedication. At the same time the ownership in banking industry and in other parts of the economy shows how much control the family and the President does have. The private industries and companies are run or ordered directly from the State House.

So that President Museveni said this in 1997 as he overthrew Mobutu is now insane:

Mr. Museveni’s ideology is simple. For too long, he says, African politicians have hoodwinked the common people, manipulating tribal sentiments to stay in power and steal millions of dollars in foreign aid and taxes. A former Marxist, he sees the true struggle on the continent as one between corrupt leaders and the dirt-poor people they exploit” (McKinley Jr., 1997).

So he said for to long African Politician played the commoners, using the sentiments of tribe on their populations and using this tools to stay in power, while doing so taking an emptying the state reserves and donor funding to themselves. Therefore, 20 years since he stood for this and said these words, he has now done the same.

President Museveni of today would assassinate himself or overthrow himself… since he is now the Mobutu of Uganda, he has the character of the men he overthrew in past. He should be worried, because the ghosts of the past and the reckless leadership will follow him and that is why he trust the guns more than people. Since his own insincere political game might catch up with him.

On some levels now, there aren’t much difference between President Mobutu and President Museveni. Peace.

Reference:

Drozdiak, William – ‘Swiss Freeze Mobutu’s Assets; Reports Put Worth at $4 Billion’ (18.05.1997) link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/africa/zaire/swiss.htm

McKinley Jr., James – ‘Uganda Leader Stands Tall in New African Order’ (15.06.1997) link:http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/15/world/uganda-leader-stands-tall-in-new-african-order.html

Kinshasa, Mary Braid – ‘Mobutu takes the money and runs to a safe haven’ (16.05.1997) link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mobutu-takes-the-money-and-runs-to-a-safe-haven-1261945.html

Koelbl, Susanne & Puhl, Jan – ‘’This Is Our Continent, Not Yours’ (10.06.2016) link: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-ugandan-president-yoweri-museveni-a-1096932.html

The London Evening Post – ‘Revealed: How the Museveni family owns Uganda’ (03.01.2012) link: http://www.thelondoneveningpost.com/comments/revealed-how-the-museveni-family-owns-uganda/2/

Venasnews – ‘Yoweri Museveni Salary and Wealth’ (27.06.2016) link: https://venasnews.com/yoweri-museveni-salary-and-wealth/