Bloomberg

By Jared Ferrie – Oct 17

South Sudan’s military dismissed speculation that an attempted coup in the East African nation was the reason for the arrest of an army general.

Major-General Simon Gatwec Dual is in military custody after being arrested earlier this month, Colonel Kella Dual Kueth, a spokesman for the South Sudanese army, said in a phone interview today from Juba, the capital. The army is forming a commission of inquiry to investigate Dual, he said…

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South Sudan Says General’s Arrest Is Not Linked to Coup Plot

Bloomberg

By Jared Ferrie – Jul 5

When Acual Bak left Sudan for newly independent South Sudan in December, she expected the government to provide basic services and allocate her family a plot of land to start a new life.

Almost seven months on, Bak is living in grass hut with a roof made from green tarpaulin at a temporary camp for returnees outside of Aweil, the capital of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state. She’s one of about 375,000 southerners who the International Organization for Migration says have made the trip from Sudan since October 2010.

The fate of the returnees is one of a series of challenges that have damped the celebratory mood as the world’s newest nation prepares to mark its first year of independence on July 9. Since secession, South Sudan has had to cope with armed conflict with Sudan, an economic crisis sparked by the government’s decision to halt oil production, corruption and ethnic violence. Like most residents, Bak, 26, is waiting for the material benefits of her country’s freedom…

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South Sudanese Still Waiting for Benefits of Independence

The National

Jared Ferrie

Sep 26, 2012

JUBA // The third day of peace talks between the presidents of the two Sudans’ continued yesterday amid claims that the north had airdropped weapons to a militia seeking to undermine the South’s government.

Philip Aguer, spokesman for the Southern army (SPLA), said the packages contained weapons and ammunition supplied by Sudan to an anti-government militia led by David Yau Yau. Mr Aguer said his troops had fought the militia that day, killing one member, after two days of attacks on SPLA posts in two other villages in the region.

“They were using rocket launchers and machineguns,” he said.

Relations between the countries have been strained since the South declared independence in July last year, acquiring three-quarters of the formerly united country’s oil reserves. Talks have since failed to resolve disputes including the location of the border, and how much the landlocked South should pay to use pipelines and processing facilities in Sudan.

The airdrop last Saturday took place on the deadline imposed by the UN to conclude the sensitive negotiations. It was the first such delivery to be confirmed by independent observers – UN peacekeepers who were stationed in a remote village in Jonglei state…

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Weapons drop hangs over Sudan talks