Monday 3 April

• The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) halts plan to increase work permit fees for foreigners.
• The strain on Uganda’s generous refugee policy is starting to show, as Bidi Bidi becomes the world’s largest refugee camp.

Tuesday 4 April

• Reuters: “Refugees recount South Sudan attack: ‘If you ran, you got shot’”
• Foreign Affairs: “Fear and Famine in South Sudan”

Wednesday 5 April

• At least 17 people were killed in Pajok, near the Ugandan border, following attacks by alleged government soldiers. UNMISS has twice been prevented from entering the town, and the attacks has forced over 6000 people to flee into northern Ugandan district of Lamwo.
• Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Jur River, currently sheltering at the Episcopal Church in Wau town, have rejected a government relocation plan.
• South Sudan’s oil production has significantly decreased in recent months due to lack of new investment in the oil sector.
• New York Times, photo report: “We Witnessed South Sudan’s Anguish”

Friday 7 April

• Reported clashes between government and SPLA (IO) forces in Ayod area, Jonglei State.
• Lieutenant General Frank Mushyo Kamanzi of Rwanda has been appointed the new Force Commander of UNMISS.
• The National Dialogue has been postponed due to lack of funding.

Sunday 9 April

• At least 16 civilians killed and 10 more wounded after reported ethnic-targeted attacks in Wau town, Western Bahr el Ghazal by government-aligned militias.

Monday 10 April

• According to Radio Tamazuj, South Sudan’s foreign-service diplomats have not been paid for six months, while SPLA soldiers have gone unpaid for two months.

Tuesday 11 April

• At least 24 people were killed and 15 wounded following an attack on a cattle camp in Ngop County, Lakes State by suspected SPLA (IO) rebels.
• Al Jazeera: “Children bearing the brunt of South Sudan refugee crisis”

Tuesday 28 Mars

• Conflicting reports on clashes in Kajo-Keji, prisoners of war allegedly freed following a prison raid by the SPLA (IO).
• New research paper by the Enough Project: “A Way Out? Models for negotiating an exit plan for entrenched leadership in South Sudan

Wednesday 29 Mars

• President Salva Kiir appointed a new governor of Ruweng State, Them Machar Kuol, after former governor, Theja Da Adwad Deng, shifted allegiance from SPLM (IO) led by Taban Deng to the SPLM. The shift was met by disapproval by civil society leaders.
• The Government of South Sudan has reiterated its rejection to opposition groups’ call to hold the national dialogue process abroad.

Thursday 30 Mars

• SPLA (IO) released the three foreign oil workers abducted on 9 March in the Adar oilfield, Upper Nile State. The SPLA (IO) warned it will continue to target oil workers in order to stop oil companies from operating. Despite this, Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum International Ltd. announced it will invest USD $500 million to develop block B.
• CNN, picture story of South Sudanese refugees: “The perilous road to safety for South Sudan’s refugees”

Friday 31 Mars

• According to a peace monitoring report seen by AP, government troops deliberately burned down thousands of civilian’s homes in the Yei region in late 2016.
• The Troika, consisting of the US, UK and Norway, welcomed the recent commitment made by President Salva Kiir to IGAD leaders to announce a unilateral ceasefire by governmental forces.

Saturday 1 April

• Riek Machar met with Festus Mogae, the head of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) in South Africa to discuss Kiir’s calls for a unilateral ceasefire and a national dialogue.
• The Washington Post: “South Sudan’s civil war creates a new lost generation”

Tuesday 21 Mars

• Hervé Ladsous, the outgoing UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, expects the first units of the regional protection force to deploy to Juba within the next few weeks. The Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has rejected the participation of RPF troops from countries outside the region.
• SPLA (IO) has reportedly abducted four oil workers from the DAR Petroleum Operating Company, while demanding all operating oil firms to immediately evacuate.
• GoSS and Equatorial Guinea announced a new petroleum sector- partnership. A signed Memorandum of Cooperation will promote information exchange on policy and regulations between Nilepet and GEPetrol.

Wednesday 22 Mars

• Pope Francis plans to visit South Sudan in October to promote peace.
• An official technical committee is set to review the increased fee for foreign work permits, stating that charges and fees should conform to regional rates.
• Pulitzer Center: “In South Sudan Children Are Being Forced to Join the Fight”

Thursday 23 Mars  

• Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned that Uganda is at a “breaking point;” as the numbers of refugees in Uganda can surpass a million before mid-2017.
• Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth has threatened to terminate Total and Tullow’s exploration contacts should they fail to start surveys in block B1 and B2 by the end of April.

Friday 24 Mars

• During a UN Security Council briefing, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused GoSS of failing to acknowledge and respond to the country’s humanitarian crisis. GoSS rejected the claim that they are responsible for causing the famine.
• Al Jazeera present stories from refugees in Uganda: “South Sudan: ‘There are only dead bodies’”

Sunday 26 Mars

• Six aid workers were killed in a road ambush between Juba and Pibor, the deadliest attack on humanitarian workers since the conflict broke out in 2013.

Monday 13 Mars

• Conflicting reports of alleged clashes in Leer town, Unity State, and Yuai area, Jonglei State.

Tuesday 14 Mars

• Former political detainee, Leonzio Angole Onek says 32 others are still imprisoned, despite a recent vow from President Salva Kiir to release them.
• A UN report by the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan claims that the redrawing of state borders has depopulate certain areas of its Shilluk and Nuer inhabitants. The report purports that the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has begun a campaign of “population engineering”. The report also criticised the delayed establishment of a hybrid court amidst increased violence and human rights violations.
• Eight South Sudanese aid workers from Samaritan’s Purse, a US charity organisation, were released after being detained by armed men near Mayendit County, Unity State.

Wednesday 15 Mars

• A cross-border attack, allegedly carried out by persons from the Murle group, have left 28 people dead in the Gog and Jor areas in the Gambella region, western Ethiopia. 43 children were also reported kidnapped by the attackers; the Ethiopian military has only rescued six of them.
• Prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed across South Sudan as the SSP continues to weaken against the US dollar.
• The Guardian: “’Last time I got food, armed men took everything’: famine in South Sudan”

Thursday 16 Mars  

• Unknown gunmen attacked an aid convoy near Yirol, Lakes State, killing two people and wounding three, according to the International Organization for Migration.
• In a series of decrees, President Salva Kiir made several government reshuffles. These include what is tantamount to a demotion of the Murle militia leader David Yau Yau from Deputy Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs to deputy Minister of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development.
• New report by John Prendergast, The Enough Project: “How The World’s Newest Country Went Awry: South Sudan’s war, famine, and potential genocide”

Friday 17 Mars

• The AFP and Reuters have seen a confidential UN report by a panel of experts. The report finds that the GoSS have continued spending oil revenue on procurement of weapons while the people face famine and severe food insecurity. The GoSS refuted these findings.
• Several individuals and armed factions have pledged allegiance to the newly established National Salvation Front, led by Thomas Cirillo Swaka. They include the former SPLA (IO) General Faiz Ismail and the leaders of the SPLM-USA Secretariat.

Saturday 18 Mars

• The GoSS will form a Ministry of East African Affairs.
• The Economist: “To fight hyperinflation, South Sudan decides to tax aid workers”

Monday 6 Mars

• The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) has granted Oranto Petroleum International Ltd. a license to explore for oil in block B3. The Nigerian company will be the technical operator and 90% shareholder of the block, with the GOSS-owned oil company Nile Petroleum Co. holding a 10% stake.
• According to the UN, GOSS is blocking food aid and restricting UNMISS peacekeeper through direct hostility, access denials and bureaucratic impediments.
• General Thomas Cirillo Swaka, former SPLA Deputy Chief of General Staff of Logistics, declared himself chairman and commander-in-chief of the new rebel group, the National Salvation Front.

Tuesday 7 Mars

• According to Sudan Tribune, a financial scandal threatens to undermine the work of South Sudan’s Crisis Management Committee (CMC) involving at least six GOSS ministers.

Wednesday 8 Mars

• Luka Biong Deng, PRIO Global Fellow and former Director of Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Juba, urged for the National Dialogue to take place outside South Sudan to ensure inclusivity in the process.

Thursday 9 Mars

• Aid agencies condemn GOSS and the labour ministry for introducing a hundredfold increase in cost of work permits for foreign aid workers from US $100 up to US $10,000. International media reports:
  • Al Jazeera: “Aid groups criticise South Sudan for $10,000 visa fees”
  • Financial Times: “South Sudan fees rise imperils life-saving aid, agencies warn”
  • Foreign Policy: “Famine-Wracked South Sudan Now Wants to Charge Aid Workers For Help”
  • The Guardian: “Famine-hit South Sudan rebuked over move to raise fees for aid workers”
• President Salva Kiir issued a decree removing the inspector general of police, General Makur Marol, from his position, replacing him with Syed Chawul Lom, former police commissioner of Jubek State.
• According to GOOS, members of the SPLM (IO) who have not laid down arms, will be excluded from the national dialogue initiative. President Kiir further stated that Riek Machar Riek Machar can only participate in the national dialogue once he denounces violence.
• BBC: “South Sudan conflict: ‘Soldiers will kill you for no reason in Yei’”
• BBC: “’Dragged, chained and shot’: South Sudan’s growing conflict”
• Bloomberg: “Famine Final Straw as War-Weary South Sudanese Flood Capital”
• The Washington Post: “South Sudan’s government-made famine”

Friday 10 Mars

• Japan’s Self Defense Force, a 350-strong military contingent, will withdraw from South Sudan and UNMISS around the end of May.
• President Salva Kiir announced he has pardoned two jailed senior government officials, former governor of Wau State, Gen. Elias Waya, and his deputy, Gen. Andrea Dominic.
• SPLA (IO) has allegedly captured two Indian oil workers, at Guelguok north in the Adar oilfield, Upper Nile State. 

Sunday 12 Mars

• The Guardian: “The Guardian view on South Sudan: don’t punish the starving”

Monday 27 February

• Reported clashes in Tharwangyiela and Thonyor areas, Unity State.
• Foreign Policy: “South Sudan’s Man-Made Famine”
• New York Times “South Sudan’s Bleak Future”
• Bloomberg: “South Sudan’s Famine Is China’s Chance to Lead”

Tuesday 28 February

• President Salva Kiir dismissed two state governors, Abraham Makoi of Western Lakes State and Rin Tueny Mabor of the Eastern Lakes State.
• Al Jazeera: “South Sudan famine: Eating water lilies to survive”
• Al Jazeera: “Dying of hunger: What is a famine?”

Wednesday 1 Mars

• The Deputy Minister of Defence, David Yayau, dismissed reports purporting his resignation.

Thursday 2 Mars  

• According to a survivor, government troops burned at least 30 civilians to death, including women and children, following clashes with the SPLA (IO) in Pigi county, Jonglei State.

Friday 3 Mars

• The SPLA has arrested four of its soldiers in response to alleged mass rape and violence against civilians in Kubi village last month.
• The Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Juba, Reverend Santo Laku Pio, criticised the planned National Day of Prayer, scheduled for March 10 by Salva Kiir, as “political and mockery.”

Saturday 4 Mars

• The Government of South Sudan has ordered the withdrawal of humanitarian organisations in the famine-struck area of Mayendit, Unity State in preparations for a major military campaign.
• New York Times: “War Consumes South Sudan, a Young Nation Cracking Apart”

Sunday 5 Mars

• The SPLM (IO) plans to sue the government of Kenya over the disappearance of two of its senior officials in Nairobi in January.
• Former Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Torit, Paride Taban, resigned from his position as co-chair of the National Dialogue steering committee.

Monday 20 February

• Further international reporting on the declared famine in parts of Unity State, South Sudan:
  • Al Jazeera, Inside Story: “Who is to blame for famine in South Sudan?”
  • Al Jazeera: “UN: $4.4bn needed to prevent ‘catastrophe’ of famine”
  • New York Times: “Millions in South Sudan in Urgent Need of Food, U.N. Warns”
  • The Guardian: “Famine declared in South Sudan”
  • Foreign Policy: “‘Our Worst Fears Have Been Realized’: The Famine We Could Have Stopped in South Sudan”
  • Reuters: “South Sudan’s Kiir promises safe access to starving civilians as famine bites”
  • Voice of America: “South Sudan Accused of Blocking Aid, Despite Famine”
  • BBC: “South Sudan declares famine in Unity State
  • Time: “By the Time We Declare a Famine, It’s Already Too Late

Tuesday 21 February

• President Salva Kiir dismissed Machar Achiek Ader, the head of the state-owned oil company Nilepet, two years after he was appointed.

Wednesday 22 February

• The President of Sudan, Omer al-Bashir ruled out direct involvement of the Egyptian army in South Sudan, but said Egypt has provided the SPLA with arms and ammunition. The SPLA deny receiving any form of military support from Egypt.
• The former governor of Warrap State, Lewis Anei Madut, has formed a new party named the Republican Party of South Sudan.

Friday 24 February

• Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, and Salva Kiir signed eight cooperation agreements during their bilateral talks in Addis Ababa; including an agreement to build a road for oil import, linking the Paloch oilfields in Upper Nile State with Malakal and western Ethiopia.

Sunday 26 February

• The SPLA (IO) accused government forces of allegedly looting and burning down villages around Yuai, Jonglei State.
• BBC: “South Sudan: People queue for food cards and vaccination”

Wednesday 15 February

• The Government of South Sudan (GOSS) seeks to cooperate with the private sector and other stakeholders to reverse the deteriorating economy.
• Clashes between government forces and the SPLA (IO) in Yuai, Jonglei State, as well as the Tigitigi and Ambasa areas, Central Equatoria State.
• Al Jazeera, In Pictures: “Atrocities prompt mass exodus in Central Equatoria”

Thursday 16 February

• According to local officials, SPLA troops raped at least six women and carried out arbitrary arrests in the village of Kubi, southeast of Juba. The SPLA has stated it will investigate the incident.
• Reuters: “Nearly 15,000 lost children seek parents in chaos of South Sudan’s war”

Friday 17 February

• The Government of Uganda warned its resources are strained by the hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees that have crossed its border in recent months.
• The Minister of Labour and Public Services, Gabriel Duop Lam, resigned from the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).
• A U.N. group of experts believes security personnel from both Kenya and South Sudan were involved in the abduction of human rights activist Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri Ezibon, chairman of the SPLM (IO) Humanitarian Affairs Committee, in Nairobi last month.

Sunday 19 February

• Two top SPLA officials overseeing South Sudan’s military courts have resigned, saying high-level interference made it impossible to discipline soldiers. International media reports:
  • Al Jazeera: “South Sudan military officials quit over ‘war crimes’”
  • Bloomberg: “2 More South Sudan Officials Resign, Alleging Graft, Bias”
  • Deutsche Welle: “Two top South Sudanese army officials resign”
  • Reuters: “Two top officials in South Sudan’s military courts resign, rebuke government”
• Salva Kiir has formed a high-level committee to make the necessary preparations for relocation of the nation’s capital city from Juba to Ramciel.
• The SPLA (IO) warned national and international oil workers from re-opening oil facilities in Unity and Upper Nile State, saying they risk losing their lives.
• GOSS and UN agencies declare famine in Unity State the first famine to be  be announced in any part of the world in six years.
• Al Jazeera: “Building peace through video games in South Sudan”

Monday 6 February

• President Salva Kiir dismissed the chief administrator of Abyei, Chol Deng Alak, and replaced him with Kuol Alor Kuol Arop, better known as Kuol Alor Jok.
• A delegation of Sudanese lawmakers visited Juba for talks with their South Sudanese counterparts on bilateral cooperation.
• According to an official state report, at least 46 children were abducted in Jonglei State in 2016.
• Al Jazeera Op-ed: “South Sudan not facing ‘genocide’, but violence is constant”
• The Enough Project: “Missing the Point on South Sudan”

Tuesday 7 February

• Salva Kiir, in an attempt to quell increased local and international outrage, said soldiers who rape civilians should be shot during a speech in Yei. He also announced that the national dialogue will commence in early March.
  • The UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, claim the national dialogue could be undermined by the ongoing violence.
• South Sudan’s former military attaché in Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, Gai Chatiem has defected and joined the SPLA (IO) led by Riek Machar.
• The SPLM (IO) dismissed allegations that the group is preparing to replace its leader, Riek Machar.

Wednesday 8 February

• The Government of South Sudan has increased security at oil installations and will source electricity from neighbouring Sudan, in an attempt to resume output at two fields and restore production levels.
• Salva Kiir has threatened major offensives should the armed opposition continue to reject his calls for national dialogue.

Thursday 9 February

• South Sudan is seeking financial support from the donor community to help close a USD$ 200 million budget deficit.

Friday 10 February

• The number of refugees who have fled South Sudan has crossed the 1.5 million mark according to UNHCR, making it the world’s third largest refugee crisis.
  • At least 52,000 South Sudanese have fled into neighbouring Uganda in January alone.
• Salva Kiir issued an executive order dismissing the governor of the newly created Imatong State in Eastern Equatoria region. The announcement led to fighting between government soldiers and Imatong state bodyguards, killing two people and injuring three others.

Saturday 11 February

• The SPLA Deputy Chief of General Staff of Logistics, Lt. Gen. Thomas Cirillo Swaka, has resigned, citing SPLA abuse against civilians and the military leaderships’ pursuit of a tribal agenda. Salva Kiir and SPLA dismissed the allegations, claiming Cirillo resigned to avoid corruption investigation.

Sunday 12 February

• South Sudanese internally displaced persons (IDPs) petitioned the UN against the re-deployment of Kenyan peacekeepers, accusing them of being involved in fuelling the July 2015 clashes in Juba.
• Reported clashes between government and SPLA (IO) forces in various areas on the west bank of the River Nile, Upper Nile State.