UN envoy says South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December

UN envoy says South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December
UN’s top envoy in South Sudan told the Security Council that the consultations make it difficult to treat the election date of Dec. 22 “as a definitive trigger in isolation from other critical factors.” (File/AP)
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Updated 15 August 2024
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UN envoy says South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December

UN envoy says South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December
  • The vote, the first since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, is meant to be the culmination of a peace agreement

UNITED NATIONS: South Sudan is not ready to hold its first post-independence elections in December and political players are discussing whether voting should be held this year, the UN’s top envoy in the troubled African country said Wednesday.
Nicholas Haysom told the UN Security Council that the consultations make it difficult to treat the election date of Dec. 22 announced last month by the National Elections Commission “as a definitive trigger in isolation from other critical factors.”
The vote, which would be the first since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict, is meant to be the culmination of a peace agreement signed five years ago to pull the world’s newest nation out of a civil war largely based on ethnic divisions. Fighting between forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar, killing some 400,000 people.
Last December, Haysom outlined a series of conditions needed to hold credible and peaceful elections. In April, he told the Security Council the parties hadn’t implemented a “critical mass” of the key steps for free and fair elections — and he told the UN’s most powerful body Wednesday that his assessment is the same today.
On a positive note, he said the Elections Commission has started assessing “the ground-level infrastructure and facilities required for a conducive environment for conducting elections,” and 29 political parties have been registered.
The UN peacekeeping mission continues “to support the creation of an enabling environment for elections in South Sudan whenever they are held,” focusing on its mandate to help protect civilians, Haysom said..
He said there are concerns among large segments of civil society, political parties, the Commission on Human Rights and the international community about a bill recently passed by South Sudan’s parliament that grants the National Security Service the power to make arrests without a warrant.
Critics of the security bill say it contradicts “their aspirations for open civic and political space” to build a democratic society and is incompatible with the spirit of South Sudan’s transitional constitution and its human rights obligations, he said.
“It has been noted that the president has the power to refer the law back to Parliament to remedy the criticisms that have been raised,” Haysom said. “This would be a significant opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to achieving the open political space in which to conduct South Sudan’s first democratic elections.”
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that the United States and many diplomatic missions are deeply concerned that the security law could “further erode the country’s political and civic environment.”
Turning to the country’s humanitarian and economic outlook, Haysom warned that “a perfect storm is gathering.”
He pointed to chronic food insecurity, the spillover of the conflict in neighboring Sudan, a rapidly deteriorating economy exacerbated by a ruptured oil pipeline and a cut in revenue, “and the potential for once-in-a-lifetime flooding in September.”
“Any one of these elements on its own presents a significant challenge,” Haysom said. “When taken together, it could push the country to a tipping point — and all during a time where the people of South Sudan are embarking on a delicate phase of nation-building.”
Edem Wosornu, the UN humanitarian office’s operations director, gave the council some stark figures — more than 9 million people, 76 percent of South Sudan’s population, require humanitarian assistance and 7.1 million are “acutely food insecure, an increase of about 1.5 million people since last year.”
Wosornu said mid-year projections by UN food security experts suggested that conflict and flooding “could result in pockets of famine between June 2024 and January 2025.”
South Sudan’s humanitarian plight is worsened by a deepening economic crisis, she said. Most oil exports have halted since February because of the ruptured pipeline. A more than 70 percent depreciation of the South Sudanese pound in the first six months of 2024 has made basic commodities unaffordable for many people, with the annual inflation rate reaching 97 percent in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.


Iraq sets November 11 for parliamentary election

Iraq sets November 11 for parliamentary election
Updated 23 sec ago
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Iraq sets November 11 for parliamentary election

Iraq sets November 11 for parliamentary election

BAGHDAD: The Iraqi cabinet has set November 11 as the date for a parliamentary election, it said on Wednesday.


US says it is aware of Palestinian American’s killing by Israeli forces in West Bank

US says it is aware of Palestinian American’s killing by Israeli forces in West Bank
Updated 09 April 2025
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US says it is aware of Palestinian American’s killing by Israeli forces in West Bank

US says it is aware of Palestinian American’s killing by Israeli forces in West Bank
  • Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the state of Israel in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said last month

WASHINGTON: The US State Department said on Tuesday it was aware of the killing by Israeli forces of a Palestinian American teenager in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was seeking more information about the incident.
A State Department spokesperson made the comments to reporters when asked about the killing of US citizen Omar Mohammad Rabea, 14, and the shooting of two other teenagers.
“We are certainly aware of that dynamic,” the State Department spokesperson said. “There is an investigation that is going on. We are aware of the reports from the IDF that this was a counterterrorism act, we need to learn more about the nature of what happened on the ground.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the weekend incident as an “extra-judicial killing” by Israeli forces during a raid. A local mayor said Rabea was shot along with two other teenagers by an Israeli settler and that the Israeli army pronounced him dead after detaining him.
The Israeli military said it shot a “terrorist” who endangered civilians by hurling rocks.
“We don’t have the complete picture of what was going on on the ground,” the State Department spokesperson added.
Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the state of Israel in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said last month.
Settler violence in the West Bank, including incursions into occupied territory and raids, has intensified since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza that has killed over 50,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and led to genocide and war crimes accusations that Israel denies.
The Israeli onslaught in Gaza followed a Hamas attack in October 2023 in which 1,200 were killed and about 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
 

 


Israel troops shoot dead woman in alleged West Bank knife attack

Israel troops shoot dead woman in alleged West Bank knife attack
Updated 09 April 2025
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Israel troops shoot dead woman in alleged West Bank knife attack

Israel troops shoot dead woman in alleged West Bank knife attack
  • Yaqub was a lawyer and mother of three from nearby Biddya, the village’s mayor, Ahmed Abu Safiyeh, told AFP
  • The Israeli military said Tuesday that Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian event hall overnight in the area of Biddya, and that no injuries were reported

HARES, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli troops killed a 30-year-old woman near the West Bank city of Salfit on Tuesday after what the army described as an attempted stabbing.
The ministry reported the death of Amana Ibrahim Mohammed Yaqub, 30, “who was shot by (Israeli) forces near Salfit,” south of Nablus.
The Israeli military said it had “neutralized a terrorist who hurled rocks and attempted to stab soldiers adjacent to the Gitai Avisar junction” close to the West Bank village of Hares.
An AFP journalist reported seeing a lifeless body under a foil blanket by the roadside at the scene of the attack.
Yaqub was a lawyer and mother of three from nearby Biddya, the village’s mayor, Ahmed Abu Safiyeh, told AFP.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian event hall overnight in the area of Biddya, and that no injuries were reported.
An AFP journalist reported most of the hall was burned to the ground, and that settlers left graffiti in Hebrew on nearby walls.
The area around Salfit and Biddya is dense with Israeli settlements, including the town of Ariel.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, violence has soared in the occupied West Bank. Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 918 Palestinians in the territory, according to health ministry figures.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 33 Israelis, including soldiers, over the same period, according to Israeli figures.
 

 


Hamas official says ‘necessary to reach a ceasefire’ in Gaza

Hamas official says ‘necessary to reach a ceasefire’ in Gaza
Updated 09 April 2025
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Hamas official says ‘necessary to reach a ceasefire’ in Gaza

Hamas official says ‘necessary to reach a ceasefire’ in Gaza
  • “This war cannot continue indefinitely, and it is therefore necessary to reach a ceasefire,” Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: A Hamas official told AFP on Tuesday that it was “necessary to reach a ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after Israel resumed bombardments on the Palestinian territory.
“This war cannot continue indefinitely, and it is therefore necessary to reach a ceasefire,” Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP, adding that “communication with the mediators is still ongoing” but that “so far, there are no new proposals.”
 

 


Iran-backed militias in Iraq ‘ready to disarm’

Iran-backed militias in Iraq ‘ready to disarm’
Updated 08 April 2025
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Iran-backed militias in Iraq ‘ready to disarm’

Iran-backed militias in Iraq ‘ready to disarm’
  • They fear threat of US airstrikes

BAGHDAD: Powerful Iran-backed militias in Iraq are ready to disarm to avert the threat of US airstrikes, they said on Tuesday.

The move follows repeated private warnings by US officials to the Iraqi government since Donald Trump took office as US president in January.
They told Baghdad that unless it acted to disband the militias on its soil, America could attack the groups.
“Trump is ready to take the war with us to worse levels, we know that, and we want to avoid such a bad scenario,” said one commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, the most powerful militia.

BACKGROUND

Militia leaders said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had told them to do whatever they deemed necessary to avoid being drawn into a potentially ruinous conflict with the US.

The others that have offered to lay down their weapons are Nujabaa, Kata’ib Sayyed Al-Shuhada and Ansarullah Al-Awfiyaa.
Militia leaders said their main ally and patron, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, had told them to do whatever they deemed necessary to avoid being drawn into a potentially ruinous conflict with the US.
The militias are part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, about 10 armed factions with about 50,000 fighters and arsenals that include long-range missiles and anti-aircraft weapons.
They are a key pillar of Iran’s network of regional proxy forces, and have carried out dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel and US forces in Iraq and Syria since the Gaza war began in 2023.
Iraqi security officials said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani was pressing for disarmament by all militias that declared their allegiance to the Revolutionary Guards or its Quds Force rather than to Baghdad.
Some have already quit their bases and reduced their presence in major cities including Mosul and Anbar for fear of airstrikes.