Month: January 2016

This Week in South Sudan – Week 3

Monday 18 January Residents of Wonduruba, Central Equatoria State, accused government forces of killing five civilians on 14 January while collecting food from their abandoned homes in Gobur village. According to the SPLM (IO) spokesperson, Riek Machar will not return to Juba unless President Salva Kiir revokes the reform dividing South Sudan into 28 states…. Read more »

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… Read more »

The Discreet Charm of Passenger Data: Big Data Surveillance Coming Home

Several governments see in the mass-surveillance of passenger data the key tool of counter-terrorism. These data are generally known as PNR – Passenger Name Records, and their potential for law enforcement has been discussed at least since the 1990s. Now European Union (EU) debates about the creation of a European PNR scheme seem settled once… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 1

Tuesday 5 January BBC Radio “Saving South Sudan’s Lost Girls” Wednesday 6 January The South Sudan Armed Forces/South Sudan Federal Democratic Party (SSAF/SSFDP) dismissed allegations that they are connected to Gabriel Changson or General Peter Gatdet Yak group. The newly appointed governor of Wau State, Elias Waya Nyipuoc, criticized his predecessor’s administration for failing to… Read more »

Unfriended: How Russia’s Syria Quagmire is Costing it Middle Eastern Allies

At a time when most Russians were taking a long break from politics until after the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, there has been no respite in Russia’s air operations in Syria, nor in the quarrel with Turkey. Rather than focus on the bread-and-butter issues of making ends meet, Russian policymakers seem to be instead… Read more »

Governments Don’t Outsource Atrocities to Militias. Here’s What Really Happens

Refugees are fleeing Syria in such astonishing numbers because armed groups continue to target civilians with violence. That’s what we heard in September when the U.N. Human Rights Council discussed the most recent report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria. The commission’s chair, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, made a plea for international action to end… Read more »

Russian Strategy Seeks to Defy Economic Decline with Military Bravado

President Vladimir Putin concluded 2015 with the approval of a revised National Security Strategy, which defines the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a threat and commits to countering it by securing the unity of Russian society and by building up the country’s defense capabilities. In the course of the past year,… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 53

Tuesday 29 December President Salva Kiir swore in new governors for South Sudan’s restructured 28 states. Members of the SPLM (IO) advance team and the SPLM held a joint meeting in Juba. Wednesday 30 December The leader of the Federal Democratic Party (FDP), a splinter group of the SPLM (IO), clarified that it has not… Read more »