South Sudan Marks 15th Anniversary of December 5th Constitutional Day

By Hon Arop Madut Arop (MP), Nairobi, Kenya

South Sudan’s coat of arms, in which the eagle symbolizes vision, strength, resilience and majesty, and the shield and spear the people’s resolve to protect the sovereignty of their republic and work hard to feed it.

December 10, 2017 (SSB) — Every year, South Sudan from all walks of life, mark December 5^th anniversary as their Constitutional Day. This year they marked the 15^th anniversary of the constitutional day, quietly at their respective homes and places of work. Importantly, as we strive to come to term with the agonies bred by the on-going senseless civil war and how to bring guns to dead silence and re-launch democratic institutions, it will be natural for the people of South Sudan to look back at their final glorious journey to statehood. Below is the first leg to statehood.

It all began soon after the conclusion of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, when the SPLM Chairman Dr John Garang de Mabior called upon the SPLM Liberation Council to form a technical committee, composed of a team of legal experts to put together a draft constitution that would be presented to the first Southern Sudan legislative assembly to endorse it as this would guide the full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the establishment of all government institutions.

Abyei and Bona Malwal: Are South Sudanese Sacrificing the Abyei Dinka to Khartoum?

By Dut Agostino Agei, Nairobi, Kenya

December 10, 2017 (SSB) — South Sudan that won independence from Sudan in 2011 was a news to everybody. This was because of the liberation struggle that took us more than several decades in the war. We are to remind ourselves that the independent South Sudan was also another independence of the SPLM/SPLA administrates areas. This was because of the strategy of the comprehensive peace agreements that gave South Sudanese their rights to be independent Country first and then liberated the administrates areas using public policies.

I was personally convinced by this protocol since the same CPA that signed South Sudan peace agreement was the same CPA that was going to negotiated the SPLM/SPLA administrates areas. This was promising in the sense of togetherness and also in the sense of cohesiveness of Southern Sudanese who were united during liberation time in the Sudan.

After the comprehensive peace agreements that addressed what the war was all about in Southern Sudan then the current situations in the Country never look likes the Country would in the future stand a chances to liberated the other SPLM/SPLA administrates areas that were together with South Sudanese during the liberation struggle and who were also in the comprehensive peace agreement with South Sudan after the independent South Sudan peace agreements. This was also seen in different bilateral relations between Sudan and South Sudan peace agreements.

SSHURSA Press statement on International Human Rights Day, 10 Dec 2017

THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY: 10 DECEMBER 2017

SSHURSA CALLS ON ALL TO ACTION FOR SOUTH SUDANESE

The late Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol

December 10, 2017 (SSB) — The 10 December usually marks the international human rights day. SSHURSA notes with concern the massive human rights violations in South Sudan by the warring parties particularly willfully perpetrated by the government forces. In other countries: Yemen, Syria, Central African Republic, Sudan’s Western Darfur Region, Iraq, Somalia and more, violence remains unabated. South Sudan and these countries have been ripped apart by civil wars. In all the episodes, young people continue to die on the battlefields as child soldiers either over the genuine cause or for the interests of the political elite. Critically, women, children, elderly and other persons with special needs, pay the ultimate price with their very lives and those who remain alive, live in total dehumanization. Their dignity is always abused. Sadly, the innocent people are profiled into a state of helplessness.

Girls are not just keepers, but potential leaders who need education like others

By Awuol Gabriel Arok, Juba, South Sudan

Team TEGSP

December 10, 2017 (SSB) — Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school; complete all levels of education with the skills to effectively compete in the labor market; learn the socio-emotional and life skills necessary to navigate and adapt to a changing world; make decisions about their own lives; and contribute to their communities and the world.

Girls’ education is a strategic development priority. Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.

Every day, girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence, and fragility. Girl Child Education is one of the safest routes that can navigate girls out of social problems.

President Kiir’s urgent and confidential letter to IGAD over “Peace Revitalization”

Why President Kiir released four Kenyans from South Sudan jail

Foreign Affairs PS Monica Juma after receiving the four Kenyans freed from South Sudan. From left: Antony Keya,Ravi Ramesh Ghaghahda,Bonface Muriuku Chuma and Antony Mwadime Wazome. (Photo Moses Omusula/Standard)

 

The manner in which Kenyans serving prison sentences in South Sudan were released this week has left in its wake questions about Kenya’s ability to repatriate its citizens languishing in foreign jails.

According to the State Law office there are at least 3,000 Kenyans in foreign jails. A similar number of foreigners is in our prisons. A Model Agreement for Negotiation of the Transfer of Prisoners was drafted in March last year, but it is still gathering dust.

And while the release of the Kenyans has finally ended a three-year agony for their families, many questions remain unanswered. First, how the four ended up being sucked into a complex case in which the signature of the President of South Sudan was allegedly forged to swindle millions of dollars. 

According to court papers, some 14 million dollars and 30 million South Sudanese Pounds were fraudulently obtained and wired to Nairobi where they were used to buy property and fund lavish lifestyles for those involved.