October 11, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has turned down a proposition made by the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir to facilitate peaceful settlement to the conflict between Khartoum and Sudan’s People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N).

Sudan and South Sudan presidents on 27 September signed a series of cooperation agreements including a demilitarized zone on the border between the two countries and military disengagement between the former rebel army turned South Sudanese army and the SPLM-N fighters.

Kiir had proposed last July during a meeting with Al-Bashir in Addis Ababa to facilitate a solution to the crisis with the SPLM-N, the issue was raised again during the six-day talks in September. On Wednesday 10 October, South Sudan Ambassador Dut Mayen reiterated Kiir’s proposition in a meeting with the presidential assistant Abdel Rahman Al-Mahdi.

Badr El-Din Ahmed Ibrahim, NCP spokesperson, reacted quickly to the proposition saying the issue of negotiations with the SPLM-N already had been discussed during the meeting between President Omer Al-Bashir and his counterpart Salva Kiir.

He pointed out they do not recognize the SPLM-N as a Sudanese political force, insinuating they are part of a foreign nation now, stressing that the government refused already to negotiate with the rebel group in Addis Ababa.

In statements to the semi-official Sudanese Media centre, he further said that issue of SPLM-N and "other armed groups was included in the security arrangements agreed between the two sides."

The government negotiating team held indirect talks with the rebel delegation but the mediation failed to create a common ground because the government delegation asked to disarm the rebels first and the SPLM-N demands to hold a comprehensive process including Darfur rebels.

A government sponsored consultative conference on peace in South Kordofan was wrapped up in Kadugli on Wednesday 10 October after endorsing a number of recommendations defining the government’s position for future talks with the rebel SPLM-N.

The conference calls for the signing of a ceasefire in the Two Areas; speedy implementation of security arrangements with the South Sudan; disengagement between "the State’s sons members of the SPLM" and the SPLA of South Sudan, and to manage the situation of the rebel fighters in line with the option of integration (in the Sudanese army) and the other DDR measures (…).

Ibrahim called on the South Sudanese government to accelerate the implementation of security arrangements, to disengage with the SPLM-N and to not support the rebel groups on the common border as well as to fight the arms smuggling.

He also pointed out they

The Sudanese government, during the interim period of 2005 peace agreement, demanded that the SPLA to withdraw its troops from the Two Areas which have a different protocol providing to conduct a popular consultation process.

On 26 May 2011 following the seizure of Abyei, Sudan’s military First Commander Ismat Abdel Rahman announced that the Sudanese army would start within a week a compulsory evacuation of all the SPLA forces in the Two Areas, adding they already addressed a message asking them to withdraw south to 1956 border.

Their presence is illegal, he added.

The difference between the SPLM-N and the Sudanese army over when they should be disarmed (before or after the popular consultations) led to the start of hostilities on 5 June 2011 between the two parties in South Kordofan, and in Blue Nile on 1 September 2011.

Since the Sudanese army say the SPLM-N fighters should be disarmed before any political process, stressing they demobilised their officers and soldiers from South Sudan in line with the peace agreement.

Based on this position, the army pushed the Sudanese president to scrap a framework deal his close aide Nafie Ali Nafie signed with the rebels on 28 June 2011 aiming to restore the political partnership between the two parties.

UN Security Council resolution 2046 demands the two parties to resume political talks without preconditions and to allow humanitarian aid to affected civilians in the rebel held areas.

(ST)

Humanitarian funding should be based on needs

Despite high level donor commitments to the humanitarian principles, global humanitarian funding continues to favour politically strategic countries over neglected or protracted crises. A new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council and Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute looks beyond the rhetoric and makes concrete recommendations to make humanitarian funding more principled and effective.

The report Tools for the job: Supporting principled humanitarian action, launched today, finds that despite high-level commitments by donor states to the humanitarian principles, such as the Good Humanitarian Donorship initiative, a number of funding-related challenges hamper implementation of humanitarian programmes and that funding allocation is influenced by strategic geo-political considerations and prioritisation of high-profile emergencies.

Based on case studies conducted in Afghanistan, DRC, Pakistan and South Sudan, the report explores principled humanitarian action from the perspectives of both NGOs and donors. It examines hurdles and opportunities humanitarian organisations face when trying to adhere to the principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.

"People have the same rights to have their basic needs met, whether they are hit by the high-profile conflict in Afghanistan or by a slow-onset crisis in Niger. It is easy to agree on this, yet humanitarian funding, as for today, is often driven more by political considerations than by needs," says Elisabeth Rasmusson, Secretary General at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

There is also a lack of adequate mechanisms to establish and prioritise needs on a global scale, acknowledges the report.

"Impartial needs assessments are essential to identifying populations at risk and facilitating informed funding decisions. Yet our research finds that prioritisation does not always reflect the reality on the ground and political concerns are often prioritised over good donorship", says Sara Pantuliano Head of the Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI.

The report makes several concrete recommendations to humanitarian organisations, including establishing common positions on what constitutes humanitarian action and funding, and to donors, including adopting safeguards to separated humanitarian assistance from any political or military agenda.

"It is my hope that this report will help to move the debate on the importance of the humanitarian principles forward, and I hope it will galvanise action to implement concrete safeguards for principled humanitarian funding," says Rasmusson.

The report is part of a wider project on Strengthening principled humanitarian response capacities, supported by ECHO and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An important part of the project will be a high-level conference in Brussels on 4th December 2012 where humanitarian organisations and state representatives from the EU and third-countries will meet to discuss the report and challenges involved in principled humanitarian action. The report can be downloaded here: http://www.nrc.no/?did=9662706

Press contacts: Tiril Skarstein, Media Adviser, NRC - +47 90 56 92 87 Ingrid Macdonald, Geneva Representative, NRC and report co-author - +47 90 80 64 62

12/10/2012 – Today, the European Union has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2012, for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

In the pursuit of peace, the EU has always helped the victims of conflict. A moral imperative for Europeans, especially in light of their shared history.

Over the past two decades, the EU has channelled approximately €14 billion to millions of victims of conflict and disaster in more than 140 countries. Driven by needs and guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, EU humanitarian aid is given without regard for any political agendas, and seeks to help those in the greatest need, irrespective of their nationality, religion, gender, ethnic origin or political affiliation.

In Syria, we are now helping between 1.5 and 2 million people fleeing the conflict inside Syria and to its neighbouring countries.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, tens of millions of refugees, displaced people and vulnerable local populations in the eastern provinces have received aid since 1994.

In Iraq, nearly 1.7 million people benefited from protection activities and rehabilitation of water and sanitation schemes.

In Libya, 56,000 foreigners stranded at the outset of the 2011 conflict were assisted in their repatriation and more than 90,000 refugees blocked at the borders received water, food, shelter and medical assistance. Inside Libya, 130,000 internally displaced people also received relief support.

In South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, crisis relief was provided for many years during and after the conflict between North and South; 2.5 million people still benefit from assistance, especially in food and healthcare.

All of this has been possible thanks to the support of the European Citizens. Congratulations to all of us, Europeans, for this important recognition.

Press Release No. 12/390

October 12, 2012

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today released the October 2012 Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, Director of the IMF's African Department, commented on the report's main findings:

“Economic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have remained generally robust against the backdrop of a sluggish global economy. Most low-income countries continued to grow soundly in 2012, although drought in many Sahel countries and political instability in Mali and Guinea-Bissau undermined economic activity. Middle-income countries, especially South Africa, slowed further, reflecting closer links to European markets. Inflation fell, as pressures on food and fuel prices eased following a surge during 2011.

“The near-term outlook for the region remains broadly positive, with growth projected above 5 percent a year in 2012–13. Strong domestic demand, including from investment, is expected to support growth in many low-income countries, but a weak external environment, particularly in Europe, will continue to be a drag on middle-income countries’ growth. With global commodity prices projected to remain soft and domestic climatic conditions improving, inflation is expected to decline to about 8 percent through end 2012, and about 7 percent through end 2013. The recent surge in international cereal prices is likely to exacerbate food insecurity in some places, and could be a threat to inflation if it intensifies.

“Downside risks have increased. Further deterioration in the world economy could quickly spill over into slower growth in sub-Saharan Africa, potentially reducing the regional growth rate by about 1 percent a year. The impact would be most severe in countries where exports are undiversified and policy buffers low.

“Policy settings should reflect country-specific conditions. For now, policymakers should rebuild fiscal and external buffers where these remain low. In the event of a significant global downturn, with knock-on effects on sub-Saharan Africa, pro-cyclical fiscal contraction should be avoided provided that wider fiscal and external deficits can be financed. Monetary and exchange rate levers should be utilized where policy space is available.

Ms Sayeh also drew attention to key messages of the two background papers in the Regional Economic Outlook on potential economic spillovers from Nigeria and South Africa and on structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: “1) There are important trade, investment, and financial linkages between South Africa and other countries in the region, especially those which are members of the Southern African Development Community and the South African Customs Union; Nigeria’s financial linkages with countries further afield are growing as Nigeria-based banks expand throughout the region. 2) During the last 15 years, albeit at different speeds and following different paths, most countries in the region have experienced some degree of structural transformation, with a shift of workers from lower to higher average productivity activities and sectors. Depending on resource endowments, labor skills, and logistical and infrastructural features, some sub-Saharan African countries may find it easier to follow the Asian structural transformation path through manufacturing, whereas others may transform through services, and still others through agriculture.”

The full text of the October 2012 Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa can be found on the IMF's website, www.imf.org.

South Sudan continues to face considerable humanitarian challenges. High food and fuel prices, seasonal flooding, conflict and displacement and border closure between Sudan and South Sudan have led to rising hunger, malnutrition across the country and deepening vulnerability. About 175,000 refugees have fled Sudan to Upper Nile and Unity states.

At the beginning of the year, humanitarian partners appealed for US$776 million for South Sudan. Funding needs have increased significantly, due to worsening food security and a continued influx of refugees from Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

A legacy of civil war, political tensions with Sudan and chronic underdevelopment impact heavily on the ability of the new state to provide basic services and respond to humanitarian needs, rendering communities vulnerable to the effects of insecurity, displacement, returns, food shortages, outbreaks of disease and seasonal floods

During the rainy season when roads are impassable, airdrops are the only real way of delivering much-needed cereals for refugees in remote Yida.

“All stations, all stations, we have a live run,” crackles the radio voice of Miguel Cussoca, an air transport officer with the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service.

Seconds later, an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane looms into view over the tops of the hardwoods at the edge of the airstrip. Its growling engines slow to allow it hit the drop zone with its first load: 10 metric tons of sorghum, tripled packed in 50 kg bags to protect them from the impact of tumbling more than 200 metres through the air.

With the plane nearly over an “X” marked on the mud airstrip, bags are jettisoned from the rear ramp of the aircraft and land – whump, whump, whump – along a strip of ground twice the length of a football field. By the time the dust has settled, hundreds of WFP-marked bags lie scattered in the dirt, a few spilling their contents onto the sandy soil but most intact.

After two more runs, the aircraft heads back to its Juba base and some 680 bags litter the drop zone. A WFP truck loaded with labourers emerges from the bush. It takes nearly three hours to load the bags and move them to the tented warehouses along the airstrip.

By early October, more than 50 airdrops of WFP food to Yida refugee camp had taken place and the process was half completed. During the dry season, food is trucked in from Juba, but 90 percent of South Sudan’s roads become impassable during the rains.

“In such a logistically challenging environment, humanitarians are forced to use costly measures to ensure the health of the refugees,” says Katherine Ely of the WF

P-led Logistics Cluster, which assists the whole aid community with the movement of humanitarian goods. “Yida has been completely cut off by road since June and the only way to bring in life-saving supplies now is via air. We’ve been using helicopters to move non-food items such as mosquito nets and medical supplies but we hope the roads will open soon.”

Yida is host to more than 64,000 Sudanese refugees, most of them fleeing conflict in the Nuba Mountains. The sprawling camp continues to receive an additional 1,000 refugees per week. Agencies in the camp anticipate the numbers will significantly increase once the dry season comes.

Access to food improved in many parts of the region following onset of harvests

There are currently 16 million food insecure people in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Rwanda facing Stressed (IPC phase 2) to Emergency (IPC phase 4) levels of food insecurity. Food security is expected to improve over the coming six months.

• Seasonal crop harvests have begun in most parts of Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and parts of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Somalia. Availability of food at the household level has improved and prices of staples have declined seasonably, although prices remain above average in most of these countries.

• The secondary lean season is peaking in pastoral and agropastoral parts of southern Somalia, southern and southeastern Ethiopia and northern and northeastern Kenya. Performance of the April to June rainy season was below average in most of these areas resulting in below average crop harvest and shortages of water and pasture.

• According to the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum 32 (GHACOF 32) the September to December rainy season is expected to be mostly above normal in the pastoral and agropastoral parts of southern Somalia, southern and southeastern Ethiopia northern and northeastern Kenya. The rains are expected to bring about improvement in pasture and water availability and overall pastoral conditions.

10/12/2012 17:59 GMT

KHARTOUM, Oct 12, 2012 (AFP) - Tanks, artillery and helicopters staged a show of force in the capital of Sudan's South Kordofan state on Friday, official media said, after unprecedented and deadly rebel shelling of the town.

Soldiers, police, internal security officers and Popular Defence Force militia members joined the parade in Kadugli, the state SUNA news agency reported, without saying how many people took part.

"Anyone who wants peace, we will talk with them, but anyone who wants war, we will fight him," SUNA quoted Ahmed Haroun, governor of the oil-producing state, as saying at the event.

Official media said seven women and children were killed in Monday's barrage by the ethnic and religious-minority Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

The surprise attack coincided with a peace conference in Kadugli between Sudan's ruling National Congress Party and others about how to end the 18-month-old war which the United Nations says has displaced or severely affected hundreds of thousands of people.

"SPLM-North wanted to send a message saying 'We are here,' but this message came on the bodies of women and children," Haroun said.

The United Nations condemned Monday's attack, which it called indiscriminate and reprehensible. One shell landed in the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) compound but failed to explode.

SPLM-N said it regretted any civilian casualties that may have been caused but said its artillery fire -- which continued on Tuesday and Wednesday -- was self-defence in the face of government shelling and aerial bombardment of rebel positions.

The rebel attack came after Sudan and South Sudan in late September signed deals on security and cooperation that they hailed as ending their countries' conflict.

The neighbours fought along their undemarcated frontier in March and April, sparking fears of wider war and leading to a UN Security Council resolution ordering a ceasefire and the settlement of unresolved issues, under African Union mediation.

Among the deals reached in Addis Ababa is agreement on a demilitarised border buffer zone designed to cut support for SPLM-N rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Khartoum accuses the government in Juba of backing those insurgents, and South Sudan in turn says Sudan has armed rebels in its territory.

SPLM-N rebels battled alongside insurgents from southern Sudan who waged a 22-year civil war which ended in a 2005 peace deal leading to South Sudan's independence last July

School officials in South Sudan say a monthly take-home food ration from the World Food Programme (WFP) has helped to reduce the number of female students dropping out of school.

TORIT – Education will be critical as the world’s newest country builds its future, and South Sudan’s girls are getting a better chance at an education thanks to WFP.

WFP supports girls through what is known as the “Girls’ Incentive,” which is designed to encourage girls’ enrolment in school and keep them attending class regularly. The incentive is offered mainly in states identified as having the lowest rates of enrolment for girls in primary schools.

The girls from grades 3-8 who are allowed by their parents to attend classes for at least 20 out of 22 days in a school calendar month receive a 9.9 kilograms of cereal and 3.6 kilograms of vegetable oil. The food serves as an incentive to the parents, who generally prefer to send boys to school, while girls stay home to work, help their families with cooking or are married off early in exchange for bride-price.

“We have witnessed a real increase in the number of girls that have enrolled and stayed in school since we started providing food through the (girls’) incentive,” says Lokang Augustine Okocha, the director of studies at Redeemed Generation Academy in Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria State.

“We now have more girls than boys in the school,” he adds.

The initiative aims to reach more than 4,200 girls in 28 schools in Eastern Equatoria state. Experts say it contributes to raising the age at which girls marry or have children.

“This food really encourages our parent to keep us in school so that we can read and become someone great in future,” says Viola Ituk, a 14-year-old pupil at Redeemed Generation Academy.

Viola, who wants to become a doctor when she grows up, believes the initiative has helped to keep girls in her town from being forced into early marriage. She thinks the programme should be sustained to ensure that more women in the country are educated to stand a chance of taking on leadership roles.

More than 70 percent of South Sudan’s about 9.5 million people are illiterate with only 16 percent of the women able to read and write.

With studies showing that an extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 percent to 20 percent, and that an educated mother’s family is likely to have a better nutritional status than an uneducated one’s, WFP is committed to the girls incentive pilot as part of its effort towards South Sudan’s longer-term development.

"Breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty at its roots begins with women," says Chris Nikoi, the WFP South Sudan Country Director. "This is why we are providing take home rations to support families to ensure that young girls in poor households stay in school longer, marry later and have healthier children."

In 2012, WFP has so far reached 29,362 South Sudanese girls under the girls’ incentive pilot in the states of Eastern Equatoria (EES), Jonglei, Lakes, Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBEG), Unity, Upper Nile and Warrap.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

In Focus 1
North Africa 2
Northeast Africa 4
Horn of Africa 6

Saturday, 13 October 2012 09:38 Diana Wani South Sudan

Returnees at Abu Camp in Rumbek, Lakes State, have raised concern about their security. The refugees have reported attacks by gunmen who forced them to hand over their property.

The Deputy Chairperson of the Returnees association in Rumbek, Mose Amading Jou, says the cases have been reported to state authorities.

He continued "Security is bad simply because most people be it in army uniform or not, carry guns which have caused fear to our small children and at night they come and attack us. When we were in Khartoum it was worse, but now in South Sudan people can sit and discuss a way forward, food is not a priority in our mind, we are check with light in the houses at night. Women are force to come out at night with their husband instructing them to seat down, being grab pull to the bush, which has cause fear to our village".

Rumbek County commissioner, Abraham Meen Kuc, confirms that he has received such reports and says extra night patrols have been deployed to the camp.

Saturday, 13 October 2012 09:45 Diana Wani South Sudan

More than thirty community extension workers graduated on Saturday in Yei, after two weeks training on quality seed production at Yei Crop Training Center (CTC).

Speaking to Radio Miraya, the Program Officer for Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Joseph Okidi, said that the main objective is to build the capacity of the farmers in order to produce better seeds.

The training funded by the Spanish government, drew participants from Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria and Eastern Equatorial State.

October 12, 2012 (JUBA) - At least ten people have died and 42 others admitted in to hospital following the recent outbreak of Kala-azar in Ayod County in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, local leaders say.

Seven people died in Pagil Payam [district] while three died in Jech Boma [sub-district], according to Nelson Kuach Thoat, a member of Jonglei State Legislative Assembly representing Ayod.

Cases of Kala-azar are common in the water-logged remote areas of Ayod, Pigi and Fangak counties of northern Jonglei state. Annual reports of death and hospitalization from the disease during the rainy season are not new but little has been done to combat the situation.

Over fifty people died of Kala-azar last year in Fangak and Ayod between May and June.

Local leaders have blamed the recent heavy rains for this year’s Kala-azar cases. The MP said that on 9 October it rained for almost 24 straight.

Kala-azar is a parasite-carried infectious disease transmitted by sand flies. The disease is fatal if not treated after few days.

The Commissioner of Ayod, James Mawich Makuach, told UN Radio Miraya in a phone interview on Wednesday that shops and residential areas have been swept away by floods in Ayod and called on the UN and government to help.

Jonglei State’s Minister of Health, Jehan Makuei Deng, says an assessment to area will commence soon but flooded roads have made Twic East, Duk and Ayod County inaccessible.

FLOOD IN AYOD

Hundreds of people are said to have been displaced from Ayod’s villages in the west to the County headquarters due to floods following heavy rains that started on Tuesday carried on through to Friday.

“The rains have destroyed residential houses, market, schools and local clinics in Ayod”, said MP Kuony.

Rains were reported to have destroyed more than 600 shops in Ayod center. “No single shop is operating in the market”, he added.

A man is also reported drowned in the water while attempting to cross to his home on the over side of the river on Tuesday.

Kuony urged the government and UN agencies to intervene quickly to the safe lives of the people in Ayod.

(ST)

October 12, 2012 (BOR) - Two people were reported killed by suspected Murle raiders in Anyidi village in Jonglei’s Bor on Friday.

At about 5.00pm a group of armed raiders suspected to be from the Murle ethnic tribes shot two people dead at Thian-wei village, five kilometers away from the centre of Anyidi and stole cattle.

The cattle were then confiscated from the raiders by South Sudan army (SPLA) peace and restoration forces member of parliament representing Bor, Philip Thon Nyok, told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

“Murle criminals killed two people at Thian-wei”, said Nyok.

Wech Ayom Jok and Wall Gai Ayuel, both in their forties, were killed while herding their cattle not far from the village, according to Nyok.

One of the youth leaders in Anyidi, Thon Kur, told Sudan Tribune that the local government had been “too slow to respond to our complaints,” that the disarmament in the Bor area had been unequal – with the Murle being less diassarmed than the other ethnic groups.

Kur did not explain what would motivate the government to offer the Murle preferential treatment.

He also claimed that 60 cattle have been looted from Anyidi since September, “and nothing was done by the same government we are under.”

Nyok said he had informed the UN Mission in South Sudan to move with him to the village to see the bodies before burial on 13 October.

Attempts to reach the commissioners of both Bor and Pibor were unsuccessful to a bad phone connection.

The long-running tribal conflict in the region has resulted in widespread displacement of its citizens.

There has been scant information from the Murle Diaspora and the Murle in South Sudan on their perspective of the conflict, unlike the vocal Luo-Nuer who claim that the Murle have been driven to abducting their children as they are suffering from an infertility endemic; a view shared by Kiir.

According to the UN Environmental Program the Murle were in Ethiopia until the 19th century. Some remained their until the 1990s while others were driven west by local Nilotes. They established an homeland in Pibor county, Jonglei state in the 1930s, since which, environmental pressures have impinged upon their pastoralist lifestyle.

Little evidence can be found to support the infertility claim. However, the motivation to rationalise the denigration of one of South Sudan’s pariah ethnic groups, in order to legitimise the attribution of blame, is self-evident.

The notable Murle rebel leader, David Yau Yau, signed a peace deal with Juba government in June 2011. However, there are allegations that Yau Yau is involved in the current Jonglei insecurity which has led to the Médecins Sans Frontières humanitarian organisation evacuating the area.

In March, the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir ordered the comprehensive disarmament in Jonglei in all the counties to eliminate illegal guns in the hands of civilians.

In April, the president appointed 23-member peace commission, under the leadership of Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, to initiate peace talk in Bor that would bring all the six tribes of Dinka Bor, Nuer, Murle, Anuak, Jie and Kachipo.

In May a peace was signed by traditional leaders of the six tribes, with the recommendations that all abducted children should be returned to their families.

(ST)

Authorities of Yei River County, Central Equatoria State have appealed to the State Government and Non-governmental organizations (NGO's) to provide education and health services to twenty-five thousand (25,000) returnees and internally displaced persons.

Speaking to Radio Miraya, the County's Commissioner, Juma David Augustine, urged the concerned agencies to expedite the services.

Meanwhile, returnees at Abu Abu Camp in Rumbek, Lakes State have raised concern about their security.

The returnees have reported attacks by gunmen who force them to hand over their property.

The Deputy Chairperson of the Returnees association in Rumbek, Mose Amading Jou, says the cases have been reported to state authorities.

Meanwhile, Rumbek County Commissioner, Abraham Meen Kuc, said that he has received such reports, adding that more night patrols have been deployed to the camp.

The Tri-Star Energy Company has donated twenty-two (22) thousand South Sudanese Pounds to five schools in Central Equatoria State.

The money will cover school fees for eighty-five (85) pupils who have been identified "as disadvantaged" by their schools.

Speaking to Radio Miraya, the manager of Tri-Star Energy Company, Ravi Parmar, said the donation is meant to enable the disadvantaged pupils to continue their studies without interruption.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Planning and Budgeting in the State Ministry of Education, Amule Felix Sosthenes, said that the ministry is prioritizing in its plans to provide learning space and textbooks to pupils and students in the state.