Warring rivals in South Sudan missed a key deadline yesterday to forge a unity government, with rebels rejecting South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s creation of new regional states as fighting continues.
The rivals were supposed to form a government by Friday, but rebels say Kiir’s nearly tripling of the number of regional states last month has undermined a fundamental pillar of an August last year power-sharing deal to end two years of civil war.
Rebel spokesman Mabior Garang criticized “anti-peace hardliners within the government” and said they would base negotiations on the old system of 10 states and not 28.
However, Garang said the rebels are “fully committed to peace and shall not entertain a return to war.”
Key international backers — the so-called Troika, made up of key donors Britain, Norway and the US, as well as the EU — this week said the talks were “deadlocked.”
Amid mounting frustration, they cut payment of hotel bills for rebel delegates in Juba.
Civil war began in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former South Sudanese deputy president Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken nation along ethnic lines.
Despite the agreement in August last year fighting continues, with the conflict now involving multiple militia forces who pay little heed to paper peace deals and are driven by local agendas or revenge attacks.
Heavy fighting was reported this week in the Western Equatoria region, including street battles in the state capital of Yambio on Thursday, aid workers said.
The clashes were between soldiers and a local militia known as the Arrow Boys, reportedly aligned with Machar’s rebels.
UN rights monitors this week added more details to a long list of horrific abuses in the more than two-year war. The report detailed “gross violations” of human rights, including “gang rape, sexual slavery and forced abortion.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number