Latest news with #WhiteArmy
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US deportations cast spotlight on South Sudan's deepening political crisis
An attempt by the US to deport South Asian migrants to South Sudan has cast a spotlight on the world's youngest country, which is experiencing a renewed outbreak of the political tensions that have plagued it over the years. On Wednesday, a US federal judge said the deportation of migrants from the US to South Sudan 'unquestionably' violated a court order requiring that any people being deported to a third country should receive due process. Related: Judge rules Trump administration violated court order by attempting to deport migrants to South Sudan US immigration authorities later confirmed that eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan were on the deportation flight and claimed that they had been convicted of offences including murder, armed robbery and other serious crimes. South Sudan's police spokesperson, Maj Gen James Enoka, told the AP on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they'd be investigated and those found not to be from South Sudan 're-deported to their correct country'. If they do make it to South Sudan, they will find a country in the midst of political uncertainty and renewed fighting between rival factions. South Sudan became the world's youngest country when it gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a referendum. The country of 11 million people is rich in oil reserves and its economy is heavily reliant on exports of the product. But the sector is marred by mismanagement and corruption and despite its vast resources, the country is underdeveloped, with most places lacking electricity, paved roads and other infrastructure. About two thirds of its population live in extreme poverty. South Sudan also experiences some of the world's most punishing climate phenomena, including extreme flooding, which displaced 380,000 people last year. In March, authorities put Riek Machar, the country's first vice-president and main opposition leader, under house arrest, accusing him of agitating his supporters to cause a rebellion. Earlier that month, the White Army, a community militia loyal to Machar, had launched attacks against the country's military in Nasir county and overran an army base. The militia said it had acted in self-defence. The government responded by bombarding areas where the group was based and arrested opposition figures. Related: 'They came for us, to take our shelters and kill us': how violence returned to a shattered South Sudan Machar's party, SPLM-IO, said his arrest had in effect collapsed the peace deal that ended the 2013-2018 civil war in which an estimated 400,000 people were killed in fighting between Nuer fighters loyal to Machar and Dinka forces backing Salva Kiir, the current president. This year's renewed tensions have put the deal to the test and shaken a fragile peace, with the United Nations warning that South Sudan was on the brink of relapsing into widespread conflict. Machar remains under house arrest and government offensives have continued in many parts of the north-east, where Nasir is located. On Tuesday, Kiir promoted second vice-president Benjamin Bol Mel as the deputy chairperson of his SPLM party. In his new role, Bol Mel, who is widely viewed as Kiir's chosen successor, would become acting president if Kiir stepped down. The news about deportations of South Asians to South Sudan comes weeks after a standoff between South Sudan and the US after the US sent a Congolese man to South Sudan, claiming he was South Sudanese.
News18
18-05-2025
- Sport
- News18
White Pigeons Fly Over Chinnaswamy Stadium On White Jersey Day, Video Goes Viral
Last Updated: Virat Kohli's fans in Bengaluru honoured his Test career by wearing white jerseys at Chinnaswamy Stadium, despite rain. On Saturday, May 17, hundreds of Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans turned up in their white jerseys to pay tribute to the Test career of ace batter Virat Kohli, who pulled the curtains down on his red-ball career on Monday, after social media came together to devise the plan. But nature, seemingly, had its plans too. As the long-drawn wait continued for the rain to stop at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a bunch of white pigeons flew over the venue, in a stunning yet unexpected display on the very day that people turned up in white jerseys for Kohli. Kohli announced his retirement from Tests earlier this week through a post on his social media handles. Watch the viral video of the pigeons here: just WOW!🥺♥️nature's tribute to #ViratKohli as well…😍🕊🏟🕊even the whites in the sky made rounds over #Chinnaswamy — WhiteArmy🤍 #RCBvKKR #IPL2025 #RCB — ಸನತ್ ಕುಮಾರ್ (@IamSanathKumar) May 17, 2025 After a quiet Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Kohli returned to domestic cricket to regain form. But his sole innings in the Ranji Trophy match against Railways for Delhi ended on a single-digit score. 'Clouds crying, white pigeons flying over Chinnaswamy, fans wearing white jerseys in the stands, what a tribute King Kohli is getting at the moment," a fan at the stadium said. The Bengaluru fans turned the stadium stands into a sea of white by wearing Kohli's iconic No. 18 India Test jersey, swapping their traditional red for white, symbolising Kohli's illustrious 14-year-long Test career. It was clear that the day belonged to Kohli as the fans queued up in white outside the stadium as early as 4.30 pm, carrying placards and wearing a white jersey with the famed No. 18 embossed on the back. The campaign wasn't endorsed by the Bengaluru team, but it did not go unnoticed. 'It's not something we've talked about in the dressing room. But I've certainly noticed the fans talking about it. I don't think it'll impact the players much, but it's a nice touch," RCB's Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, said at the pre-match press conference. RCB will next take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 23 at home. First Published: May 18, 2025, 12:27 IST
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘They came for us, to take our shelters and kill us': how violence returned to a shattered South Sudan
Night had already fallen on Juba, the capital of South Sudan, at about 7pm on 24 March, when an orange glow lit up the sky. It didn't take long before news spread that the government had carried out an airstrike. For weeks, clashes had taken place in remote parts of the country between the army of the president, Salva Kiir, and opposition forces, but never that close to the capital. The target – an opposition base in Wunaliet, 15km west of the city – was consumed in flames. Just hours before the airstrike, Nicholas Haysom, the head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss), had warned that the political and security situation in the country had deteriorated. 'We are left with no other conclusion but to assess that South Sudan is teetering on the edge of a relapse into civil war,' he told a press briefing. Tensions have been particularly high in the north-eastern state of Upper Nile. On 4 March, the White Army, a youth militia from the Nuer ethnic group loosely associated with the movement of the opposition leader and first vice-president, Riek Machar, overran a government army base in the town of Nasir, near the Ethiopian border. The base commander, general David Majur Dak, was killed three days later during an evacuation attempt by the UN, alongside a UN worker and dozens of soldiers. The government responded by arresting dozens of opposition figures in Juba, including the minister of petroleum, Puot Kang Chol. They were accused of being 'in conflict with the law' by the government spokesperson Michael Makuei Lueth, who blamed them for inciting those in Nasir. An aerial bombardment campaign was also launched in Upper Nile, involving the 'use of improvised air-dropped incendiary weapons [that] killed and horrifically burned dozens of people, including children, and destroyed civilian infrastructure', according to Human Rights Watch. To counter rising instability, the South Sudanese government asked the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) for help, based on a pre-existing military cooperation agreement. But Machar denounced the UPDF deployment as a violation of the 2018 arms embargo and the peace treaty, which ended five years of fighting that killed about 400,000 people. On 23 March, he said in a letter to the UN that the Ugandan intervention may lead to the collapse of the agreement. It was the last time Machar communicated publicly. Three days later, he was placed under house arrest. Amnesty International has also decried the involvement of Ugandan soldiers and called on the UN security council to renew the arms embargo when it expires at the end of this month. The government has repeatedly emphasised its commitment to the peace process. But calls for an end to the violence and Machar's release have been ignored, and the bombardment of opposition strongholds has continued in several parts of the country. A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in the town of Old Fangak, a safe haven for thousands of flood-displaced Nuer people in northern Jonglei state, was bombed on 3 May. Seven died and many were wounded in an attack that MSF denounced as a 'deliberate bombing' of the facility. Progress since the 2018 peace agreement has been slow. As part of the deal, and under pressure from the international community, Kiir agreed to share power with Machar, his longtime opponent. A unity government was formed in 2020, whose task was to unify the rival armed forces, reform the country and organise its first elections since independence in 2011. But an election initially envisioned for December 2022 has been postponed twice, and is now scheduled for December 2026. Seeing the peace process in tatters is particularly daunting for those who depend on it to rebuild their lives. John (not his real name), 55, lived in an overcrowded camp for internally displaced people (IDP) next to the Unmiss base on the outskirts of Juba for 11 years. Like tens of thousands of Nuer, he had run to the UN for protection at the beginning of the civil war in December 2013 (the camp was under UN peacekeepers' protection until 2020). But in October last year, he left 'because there are no humanitarian services and no food here', and moved into a friend's mud house in nearby Khor Ramla. There, he was trying to survive by working in agriculture and artisanal gold mining. When clashes erupted at several nearby military camps after 24 March, John says he became a target. 'After the army bombed Wunaliet, they attacked the opposition at other training centres and dispersed the soldiers [loyal to Riek Machar]' he says. 'Then they came for us, the Nuer staying in Khor Ramla, to take our shelters, and to kill us.' When the government soldiers started shooting, he escaped, barefoot, at night. More than a month later, injuries on his feet have still not healed. He says one of his colleagues was killed. John returned to the camp next to Unmiss on 28 March. According to humanitarian agencies, 4,000 people moved to IDP camps in March, 'as a precaution while tensions and fears of intercommunal violence are high'. But he does not feel safe. Five young men have been shot dead near the camp since the Nasir crisis, according to multiple sources, but 'the families do not want to open cases because they are afraid', John says. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Several others have disappeared. John gives the names of a woman who went to collect firewood and never came back, and of a man who went to his usual place to make charcoal, but never returned. 'We live in fear, we can't go out for our subsistence, and we have no idea what will happen next,' he says. 'What we need is protection from the peacekeepers until every chapter of the peace agreement is implemented.' Priyanka Chowdhury, a spokesperson for Unmiss, says: 'We have strengthened our countrywide protection efforts, including intensifying patrols and engagement with community leaders at internal displacement sites.' She emphasises, however, that 'the government of South Sudan is primarily responsible for protecting civilians'. On 7 March, when Kiir announced the death of Dak, the base commander in Nasir, he asked citizens 'not to take the law into their hands' and repeated his promise: 'I will never take this country back to war.' He also regretted that a 'normal routine with the armed forces became politicised', referring to the rotation of military personnel in Nasir, which had triggered local hostility. Questions have been raised over why the government didn't deploy the Necessary Unified Forces (NUF), the national army envisioned by the peace agreement, to quell tensions in the north. The government blamed the arms embargo, saying the NUF could not be deployed to conflict areas without proper weapons. In the meantime, South Sudan's tired and traumatised population is left wondering 'who will bring peace', says Jackline Nasiwa, executive director of the Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice. 'The people of South Sudan cannot heal in an environment of unending violence and political uncertainty,' Nasiwa told the UN security council on 16 April. Despite its flaws, she believes the 2018 peace agreement remains 'the only viable option for the people of South Sudan to transition to democracy', stressing that 'the immediate needs on the ground are for civilian protection and unobstructed aid delivery'. On 8 April, students are waiting for the start of classes at a newly built secondary school next to Gorom refugee camp, 20km to the south-west of Juba. Mawichnyun Gatduong, 19, from the northern city of Bentiu, sits in the bright white classroom with a mix of students from nearby villages and Sudanese refugees staying in the camp. 'We have all heard the gunshots, and we didn't come to school for several days,' Gatduong says, referring to fighting around military camps south of Juba. 'I'm so worried about the situation because we don't know if they will end the war or not. 'It can affect young people like us, because someone can catch you and force you to be a soldier,' he says, advising other youths 'to be patient, stay in one place and not to move around apart from going to school'. His dream is to become a doctor. 'It is the only thing I am struggling for.'
Arab News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
South Sudan opposition MP accuses government of ‘mapping genocide'
JUBA: A South Sudan opposition lawmaker on Sunday accused President Salva Kiir's government of preparing a 'genocide' of his rival Riek Machar's Nuer community by classifying their homelands as 'hostile.' Months of clashes between Kiir's forces and those loyal to the first vice president Machar, who was arrested in March, have stoked fears of a return to civil war in the world's newest country. Kiir's allies have accused Machar's forces of threatening that deal by fomenting unrest in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths in the region. 'The Nuer ethnic group, one of the largest in South Sudan, played a significant role in the liberation struggle,' read a government statement. 'The community spans 16 counties... out of these, nine are considered hostile,' meaning aligned with Machar's party, the statement added. Nasir County was among those considered hostile. That designation was 'reckless and malicious,' said Reath Muoch Tang, a deputy and top official in Machar's party who is Nuer himself. 'This dangerous labelling... this sinister plan constitute(s) nothing short of a mapping for genocide against the Nuer community,' Tang said in a statement published on Facebook. 'It is a deliberate and calculated attempt to justify collective punishment, instigate violence, and destroy an entire society under the false cover of security measures.' In a statement, Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, acting chairman of Machar's party, cited a 2014 African Union report that found that 'male Nuers were targeted, identified, killed on the spot or gathered in one place and killed' at roadblocks, checkpoints and house-to-house-searches. 'We warn and strongly condemn (this) perpetuation of State Policy and of ethnic and tribal profiling, targeting and cleansing,' said Pierino. He said the party was taking steps toward filing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide, among others, at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Clashes around Nasir contributed to the unraveling of Kiir and Machar's fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, which had put an end to a civil war that killed around 400,000 people. Some 6,000 White Army fighters are estimated to have stormed a military camp in Nasir in early March, with a top-ranking general among the victims. The government said the attack killed 400 members of the armed forces, and has said it has since retaken the city, as well as Ulang, nearly a week ago, with the support of Ugandan forces. Since March the violence has led to the deaths of at least 200 people across several South Sudan states and displaced around 125,000 more, according to the United Nations. South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. Between 2013 and 2018, the fighting pitted the supporters of Machar against those of Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group. The Dinka and Nuer communities are the two largest groups in ethnically diverse South Sudan. The president has moved to sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest. On Saturday, the South Sudanese government also discussed a 'plan of action' to restore the peace agreement. It suggested that it could choose which of the divided opposition factions is legitimate, potentially paving the way for Machar's ousting, according to South Sudanese media. Pierino, Machar's ally, warned that 'any attempt to change the structure' of the transitional government, 'or replace the appointments therein... shall be rejected and resisted by all means at our disposal.'
TimesLIVE
22-04-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
South Sudan's military recaptures key town from White Army militia
South Sudan's army said it had recaptured a key town in Upper Nile state that it lost to an ethnic Nuer militia in March in clashes which led to the arrest of First Vice-President Riek Machar and a spiralling political crisis. President Salva Kiir has served in an uneasy power-sharing government with Machar since a 2018 peace deal ended a civil war between fighters loyal to the two men which killed hundreds of thousands of people. Machar's detention under house arrest, for trying to stir up a rebellion through his supposed support for the White Army militia in Upper Nile, has ignited international fears of renewed conflict along ethnic lines. Spokespeople for the military and White Army, which Machar's party denies backing, said Nasir town was re-captured on Sunday without a fight. "We were just taking a tactical withdrawal," said Honson Chuol James, White Army spokesperson, adding that 17 people were killed during heavy bombardment of the nearby village of Thuluc.
