This Week in South Sudan – Week 4

Tuesday 20 January

• According to the SPLM/A, its forces are still fighting the SPLM/A (IO) in Lakes state. 
• At least 11 civilians were killed and three wounded in an attack on Kworijik near Juba in Central Equatoria State. The attack was allegedly carried out by neighboring Mundari raiders.

Wednesday 21 January

• The South Sudan government accused the SPLM/A (IO) of attacking an oil facility in Unity state and setting it on fire. The SPLM/A (IO) later refuted these claims.
• Several hundred people protested in Juba against the recent killings of civilians in Kworijin village amid heavy deployment of security forces; two journalists covering the event were detained.

Thursday 22 January

• Several groups and organizations, including Amnesty International and South Sudan Law Society, have called on the African Union (AU) to immediately publish the AU Commission of Inquiry Report on South Sudan, in order to ensure accountability.
• South Sudan’s warring factions have signed a new peace agreement in Arusha, Tanzania, agreeing to ‘reunify and reconcile’ the political party, the SPLM.
• An alliance of South Sudanese opposition parties has petitioned the National Elections Commission over its plans to hold general elections later this year.
• South Sudan’s elections commission has not yet received the funds that it needs to carry out the poll that General Salva Kiir has ordered take place in June.

Friday 23 January

• Joint statement by the Troika countries, the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway, on South Sudan’s peace negotiations.
• Government forces reportedly abandoned their defence positions following sustained clashes with the SPLM/A (IO) in Unity state.

Saturday 24 January

• A meeting of the Joint Security Mechanism (JSM) between Sudan and South Sudan kicked off Wednesday 21 January in Khartoum.
• A senior official in the ministry of information, Khamis Abdel-Latif Kachuol, defected from president Salva Kiir’s government and joined the SPLM/A (IO).

Sunday 25 January

• Eleven people were killed and others wounded, including Commissioner James Benjamin, in an ambush on the road between Raja town and Sapo area in Western Bahr al Ghazal State.
• A SPLM/A (IO) spokesperson has refuted allegations that issues of accountability and justice, which have arisen from the over one-year old civil war, have been dropped from agenda in the peace process.
• President Salva Kiir called for an extraordinary meeting of the ruling party (SPLM) to debate and ratify the Arusha pact.