February 2, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Intelligence officers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are working closely with Darfur armed groups in Libya, said the U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts on Darfur in its latest report. Since several years, the panel which monitors compliance with a 2005 UN arms embargo for Darfur says that armed groups are working with the warring parties in Libya who provide them with money and weapons they bring to Darfur in violation of UN resolutions. In their (...) - News / Libya, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Darfur Rebel Groups

February 2, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Volker Perthes, the head of the United Nation Mission Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday. Perthes was appointed on 7 January 2021 by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. His last moment appointment ended months of bargaining and consultations at the UN Security Council between several candidates. He was received at Khartoum airport by Omer al-Sheikh, head of Sudanese coordination committee with (...) - News / UNITAMS - United Nation Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan , FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

February 1, 2021 (JUBA) - South Sudan has embarked on power sector development in a bid to transform its electricity market as part of efforts to increase access to electricity across the country. The move, officials say, will involve the implementation of the South Sudan Electricity Master Plan to expand power distribution systems. South Sudan reportedly facing a deficit of approximately 170 MW, one of the nations with the lowest electricity access rates globally. According to (...) - News

February 1, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese and Qatari officials discussed ways to support peace in Darfur, said the foreign Omer Gamar Eldin after their return to Khartoum on Monday. A Sudanese delegation led by the Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daglo was in Doha for an official three-day visit. The delegation met with the Emir of Qatar, Chairman of the Shura Council, and the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Foreign Minister. Speaking to reporters upon their (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Qatar

February 1, 2021 (GENEVA) - The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has welcomed South Sudan government's decision to establish the Hybrid Court and other transitional justice mechanisms to address violations committed during the conflict. On Friday last week, South Sudan's cabinet directed the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to take the necessary steps for establishing the Hybrid Court for South Sudan to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for violations (...) - News / South Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, UN - United Nations

February 1, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The political groups of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) Monday handed over their nominees for 17 ministries to Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok who is still waiting for the list of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF). The Council of Partners, which includes the parties to power, decided to form the new government next Thursday 4 February, while the FFC and SRF pledged to hand over their nominees on Monday. The cabinet office announced in a statement (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, Democratic Transition in Sudan

January 31, 2021 (ADDIS ABABA) - The African Union (AU) has welcomed South Sudan's decision to establish the AU Hybrid Court. In a statement issued on Sunday, the AU Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, welcomed the announcement by the Government of South Sudan, which approved the establishment of the long-awaited AU Hybrid Court of South Sudan by South Sudan. The move, he said, "puts an end to the delays in establishing the court, transitional justice, accountability, (...) - News / South Sudan, Human Rights, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

January 31, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Vice Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, «Hemetti», met on Sunday with the Emir of Qatar and the head of Qatari legislative council. Hemetti accompanied by the foreign minister and director of the Sudanese intelligence agency quicked off on Saturday a three-day visit to Doha. On his second day, the Sudanese officials met the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The meeting, according to the Sudanese government, discussed (...) - News

January 31, 2021 (JUBA) - The newly-appointed governor of South Sudan's Upper Nile state, Budhok Ayang Kiir has vowed to spearhead healing and reconciliation among communities. He was speaking at his swearing-in ceremony in Juba on Saturday. “The task would begin from Juba because the problems in Upper Nile state start from the national capital, Juba,” Kur explained. South Sudan President Salva Kiiir on Friday appointed the long-awaited governor of Upper Nile, months after rejecting Johnson (...) - News / Governance & Civil Service, Unity State

January 31, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Transitional Government Partners Council (TGPC) in Sudan announced an agreement to hand over the nominees for the new cabinet to Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok on Monday. The new transitional government which will include the former rebel groups signatory of the Juba Peace Agreement is expected to be formed on 4 February. Also, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the Forces for Freedom and Change had to give their nominees to the prime minister (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, Democratic Transition in Sudan

January 31, 2021 (ADDIS ABABA) - The African Union (AU) has welcomed South Sudan's decision to establish the AU Hybrid Court. In a statement issued on Sunday, the AU Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, welcomed the announcement by the Government of South Sudan, which approved the establishment of the long-awaited AU Hybrid Court of South Sudan by South Sudan. The move, he said, "puts an end to the delays in establishing the court, transitional justice, accountability, (...) - News

January 30, 2021 (JUBA) - South Sudan on Friday approved the establishment of the African Union (AU) Hybrid Court to try war crimes committed during a civil war that lasted for over five years. Speaking reporters in the capital, Juba, South Sudan's Information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth said the country's cabinet has authorized his Justice and Constitutional Affairs counterpart, Rueben Madol to start the process of establishing the Hybrid Court. "Cabinet authorized him to start the (...) - News / South Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

January 30, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Vice Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo «Hemetti» held frank talks with Qatari officials on Saturday. Hemetti arrived in Doha, accompanied by Foreign Minister Omer Gamar Eldin and Director of the General Intelligence Service, Jamal Abdel Majeed, on an official visit. The visit is the first of its kind after the ouster of the former President Omer al-Bashir in April 2019. Following their arrival, the (...) - News

January 30, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan has deployed a significant number of troops in West and South Darfur states to prevent renewal of intercommunal attacks. However, the volatile security situation remains the main concern in the region. The death of over 200 people following tribal attacks in the two states a few weeks after the termination of the 6000-troop peacekeeping mission in Darfur pushed Khartoum to swiftly deploy additional troops in West Darfur first and South Darfur after this (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

January 30, 2020 (JUBA) - South Sudan will switch to a new time zone starting from 1 February 2021, the government has officially announced. In a statement, the undersecretary in the Labour and Public Service ministry, Mary Hillary Wani Pitia said the young nation will shift back one hour from the Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) +3 to UTC+2. The new time zone is based on South Sudan's location on the globe. “This means that the current time will be set back by one hour, the current 1:00 (...) - News / South Sudan

January 29, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Friends of Sudan group said concerned about tribal attacks in Darfur and called on the transitional government to implement the National Plan on the Protection of civilians. The group held a teleconference meeting hosted by the German government on 28 January to discuss the ongoing transitional process in Sudan, including peace efforts to settle the armed conflicts and the implementation of Juba peace agreement. In a statement released on Friday, the (...) - News

January 29, 2021 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President on Friday appointed the long-awaited Governor of the Upper Nile State, but the expected move had already been rejected by Johnson Olony, the former nominee for the position. «I, Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, do hereby issue this Republican Decree for the appointment of Hon. Budhok Ayang kur as the Governor of Upper Nile State with effect from 29th January 2021,» reads a decree released by the South Sudanese (...) - News / South Sudan, Upper Nile State, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

January 29, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Ethiopia has massed troops on the border with Sudan as its deputy prime minister reiterated on Friday calls to withdraw the Sudanese army from «the Ethiopian territories». «The Ethiopian army deployed armaments including tanks and anti-aircraft batteries to the border region in the past two weeks, said two foreign diplomats who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public,» reported the New York-based Bloomberg news agency, on Thursday (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

January 29, 2020 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President on Friday appointed the long-time awaited Governor of the Upper Nile State, but the expected move had been already rejected by Johnson Olony the former nominees for the position. «I, Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, do hereby issue this Republican Decree for the appointment of Hon. Budhok Ayang kur as the Governor of Upper Nile State with effect from 29th January 2021,» reads a decree released by the South (...) - News / South Sudan, Upper Nile State, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

January 28, 2021 (JUBA) – South Sudan's president Salva Kiir on Thursday urged newly-appointed deputy governors to cooperate as parties and local governments and deliver service to the people. He was speaking during the swearing-in ceremony for eight newly-appointed deputy governors in the capital, Juba. The deputy state governors include, Antipas Nyok (Jonglei), Poth Madit Dut (Lakes), Tor Tungwar Kueiguong (Unity), Angelo Biajo Taban (Western Bahr el Ghazal), Kennedy Gaaniko (Western (...) - News / South Sudan, Governance & Civil Service

January 29, 2021 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has abruptly issued a republican order sacking the governor of Warrap state and appointing a former interior minister. Kiir, according to a presidential order announced by the state-owned television (SSBC), removed Bona Panek Biar and replaced him with Aleu Ayieny Aleu. The directive, however, gave no reasons for the new changes. Biar was appointed on the ticket of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) allied to (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Warrap State, Governance & Civil Service

January 28, 2021 (JUBA) - The training and redeployment of South Sudan's national unified forces of has stalled, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) said Thursday. In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, RJMEC also noted a significant decline in the pace of the implementation of the Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements as envisaged in Chapter Two of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). (...) - News

January 27, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – Senior leaders at U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) spoke of a new era in the relationship with Sudan two years after a popular uprising that put an end to the rule of President Omer Hassan al-Bashir. Last year saw the removal of Sudan from the list of states that sponsor terrorism, reinstatement of the country's sovereign immunity in US courts, lifting of several other sanctions and a package of financial aid from Washington. Furthermore, Khartoum also witnessed (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, United States (US)

January 27, 2021 (JUBA) – At least 357,450 South Sudanese refugees have returned home from countries within the region since November 2017, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. In a monthly update for December 2020, UNHCR and South Sudan's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) noted that some 236,764 refugees out of the 357,450 refugees returned following the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in 2018. Majority of returnees, it said, were from neighbouring Sudan and Ethiopia. (...) - News / South Sudan, UNHCR - United Nations Refugee Agency

January 27, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese government has not signed a normalization agreement with Israel because Khartoum wants it to take place at the White House, a U.S. based news website reported on Wednesday. On 23 October, Sudan agreed to normalize relations with Israel during a call including Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump and the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. However, On Tuesday, Israeli (...) - News

January 27, 2021 (NAIROBI) – Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged South Sudan leaders to expedite the implementation of the pending issues in the peace deal signed in September 2018. He made the remarks during a meeting with the United States Special Envoy for South Sudan, Ambassador Stuart Symington and his British counterpart, Bob Fairweather in Nairobi on Tuesday. The Kenyan leader cited the establishment of the legislative assembly and reforms in the security sector as some of the (...) - News / South Sudan, Kenya, FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, South Sudan Peace Implementation

January 27, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Mohamed Osman al-Hussein, Wednesday, inaugurated the launch of a number of strategic infrastructure projects on the eastern borders with Ethiopia. The projects which are funded by the army's Social Insurance Fund (SIF) enterprises include the construction of bridges, roads and highways. Al-Hussein who is in the region to inspect the Sudanese forces deployed on the border areas directed the implementing agencies to redouble (...) - News / Ethiopia, Eastern Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

January 26, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese military leaders on Tuesday discussed with a visiting U.S. delegation headed by the Deputy Commander of the African Military Command (AFRICOM) military cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Andrew Young arrived in Khartoum, on Monday, on an official visit accompanied by U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, U.S. Africa Command director of intelligence and other military officials. He met with the head of Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah (...) - News

January 26, 2021 (ADDIS ABABA,KHARTOUM) - Ethiopia on Tuesday set a pre-condition for any form of negotiations with neighbouring Sudan over their border dispute. The Ethiopian government, state media reported, will only begin talks when the Sudanese side goes back to the status quo ante. «Our precondition to carry out the negotiations with the Sudanese side is return to the status quo ante. Then we will discuss the border issue,» said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Dina (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Sudan, Ethiopia, Diplomacy - International Relations

January 26, 2021 (NEW YORK) - More than 8 million people in South Sudan will need humanitarian assistance this year alone, the United Nations said. The needy, who include 310,000 refugees and asylum seekers reportedly present an increase from the 7.5 million people in need last year. South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, has a population of about 12 million people. According to the UN, years of conflict and the impact of climate change are driving up humanitarian needs, including (...) - News / South Sudan, OCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Famine

January 26, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Yasir Arman, deputy head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Malik Agar, accused the Sudanese intelligence service of working to divide the movements that signed the peace agreement. This accusation comes as the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement is facing severe delays four months after its signing. In a joint interview with Al-Sudani and Al-Tayyar newspapers published in Khartoum on Monday, Arman said that a successful (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

January 26, 2020 (JUBA) – South Sudan's First Vice-President, Riek Machar on Tuesday discussed the implementation of the September 2018 peace deal with several diplomats in the country. The diplomats who met Machar included, Prof. Joram Biswaro, the head of the African Union mission in South Sudan, Major Gen. Charles Tai Gituai, Interim Chairperson of Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) as well as the Deputy Chief of Strategy at RJMEC, Ambassador Thomson Fontaine. (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, South Sudan, South Sudan Peace Implementation

January 25, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The number of civilians displaced by the recent Inter-communal violence in West and South Darfur states has risen to over 125,000 people, said a UN agency on Monday. Last week, the nomadic Arabs carried out a revenge attack on a displacement camp near El-Geneina killing 163 people and injured 217 others while the tribes clashed in the neighbouring South Darfur over cattle rustling between the Rizeigat and Fallata resulted in the death of over 40 people. (...) - News

January 25, 2020 (JUBA) - The Central Bank of South Sudan will begin auctioning at least $2 million weekly to stabilize the country's economy, a senior official disclosed. Speaking to reporters in the capital, Juba on Saturday, the Central Bank governor, Dier Tong said auctioning of hard currency started in December last year in order to stabilise the market during last year's festive season. “Every week, we are auctioning $2 million. Those who will win it will have the cash. They are (...) - News / South Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Economy

January 25, 2021 (JUBA) – The South Korean government has donated $400,000 to help in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) among women and girls in South Sudan. The donation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said in a statement, will be used to further support its response to GBV as contained in the South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan. “Sexual and gender-based violence remains one of the prevalent human rights issues in South Sudan, emanating from the (...) - News / South Sudan, Women & Girls, UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund