
AU Letter on Morocco and Western Sahara from President Ali Bongo (26.07.2016)



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.
“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).







“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)


“South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar, said Friday that he would not return to Juba until regional troops are deployed in the capital to ensure his safety, his representative in Ethiopia, Jooyul Goi Yol has told AFP” (AfricaNews, 2016)