This Week in South Sudan – Week 2

Monday 11 January

• At least five dead after clashes between Dinka Bor herders and Bari farmers in Lobonok, Central Equatoria. The Bor herders and the Bari community later agreed to settle their differences peacefully.

Tuesday 12 January

• According to UNICEF, 51 per cent of South Sudanese children between 6 to 15 years of age, 1.8 million, are not in school, the highest proportion in the world.
• A fire broke out Sunday 10 December in Sector 1 of the UN Malakal camp, killing a baby and burning down 75 per cent of the homes in the area, leaving 1000 people homeless. Another six people were killed in an accidental grenade blast outside the camp on 9 December.
• The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission has begun the process of security sector reform in South Sudan.
• Negotiations were reportedly opened between the SPLM factions over whether to revoke the division of South Sudan into 28 states . This claim was later denied by the SPLM (IO). President Salva Kiir subsequently announced a ’red line’ over revocation of the 28 new states.

Thursday 14 January

• An 84 per cent devaluation of the South Sudanese pound against the dollar in December is set to fuel hyperinflation in South Sudan, where food costs and a foreign-exchange shortage already increased consumer prices by 9 per cent in December.
• SABMiller Plc will close its brewing operations in South Sudan by mid-February as a foreign-currency shortage curtails its ability to import raw materials. SABMiller is the largest the nation’s main non-oil foreign investor, and the close down will leave SABMiller’s 237 employees without a job and businesses depening on its products will also face difficulties.
• A coalition of 18 local women’s organizations demand that South Sudanese women should hold seven ministerial positions in the country’s new transitional government as well as the speaker role in parliament.

Friday 15 January

• At least three women were reportedly stabbed to death and robbed of their food purchases in an attack by unknown assailants along the Torit-Loronyo area in Eastern Equatoria State.
• The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon appointed Ethiopia’s Major General, Hassen Ebrahim Mussa as Force Commander of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). 

Saturday 16 January

• The Shilluk ethnic group overthrew their king, Kwongo Dak Padiet, accusing him of supporting the creation of 28 states and over staying in Juba, neglecting the concerns of the Shilluk kingdom at home in Upper Nile State.

Sunday 17 January

• South Sudan’s unity government is in jeopardy after Riek Machar recalled the leadership of his team negotiating over the 28 states issue.
• The Petroleum and Mining ministry says it may be forced to shut down its oil fields in Upper Nile State and turn off pipeline, should the Sudanese government fail to lower its oil transit fees.