Africa > East Africa > South Sudan > South Sudan: Peace Deal Reached With ‘Arrow Boys’

South Sudan: South Sudan: Peace Deal Reached With ‘Arrow Boys’

2015/11/20

“This is a millstone today to see that the two parties from the government and South Sudan National Liberation Movement have signed a preliminary peace agreement to end the suffering of the citizens of Western Equatoria national”, said Monsignor Eduard Hiiboro, Bishop of the diocese of Tombura-Yambio with a key mediating role, defining the signing of a peace transaction yesterday in Yabio County.

The government and South Sudan National Liberation Movement (SSNLM) committed to end fighting to allow the return home and to the fields of thousands forced to flee. The SSNLM gained consensus on a local level due as well to violations and abuses committed by Juba’s military. The armed wing of the movement consists in units of “arrow boys”, which are based in the bush and forests.

“We did not leave our homes to enter the bush to fight the government but to draw the attention of the government to listen to our complaints and we are not fighting any tribe”, said Victor Wanga, a commanding officer of the SSNLM who signed the agreement.

Fighting and attacks in Western Equatoria, part South Sudan’s most fertile regions, displaced tens of thousands in just few months. The violence comes in the context of a wider civil conflict between loyalist forces of President Salva Kiir and rebels linked to his former deputy Riek Machar. Two years of war has forced over 2 million people from their homes, often as well across the borders into Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

Related Articles
  • UNWTO: International tourism – strongest half-year results since 2010

    2017/09/09 Destinations worldwide welcomed 598 million international tourists in the initial six months of 2017, some 36 million additional than in the same period of 2016. At 6%, increase was well above the trend of recent years, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Visitor numbers reported by destinations around the world reflect strong request for international travel in the initial half of 2017, according to the new UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 6% compared to the same six-month period last year, well above the sustained and consistent trend of 4% or higher increase since 2010. This represents the strongest half-year in seven years.
  • H.E. President Alassane Ouattara and the theme of “Accelerating Africa’s Path to Prosperity

    2017/09/09 This year, under the leadership of H.E. President Alassane Ouattara and the theme of “Accelerating Africa’s Path to Prosperity: Growing Inclusive Economies and Jobs through Agriculture”, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2017 is shaping up as a premier platform to showcase ongoing evolution in Africa’s agricultural transformation schedule and to scale up the political, policy, and financial commitments needed to achieve the Malabo Declaration and the world development schedule around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following the launch of the landmark annual Africa Agriculture Status Statement (ASSR) at the AGRF taking place in Cote d’Ivoire from 4-8 September 2017, the major conclusion centres around the power of entrepreneurs and the free market in driving Africa’s economic increase from food production. This is owing to the fact that a lot of businesses are waking up to opportunities of a rapidly growing food market in Africa that may be worth additional than $1 trillion each year by 2030 to substitute imports with high price food made in Africa.
  • International Arrivals To Africa Reach More Than 18 Million In 2017

    2017/09/09 Market Research Company Euromonitor International revealed before this week the key trends shaping travel and tourism in Africa at the 41st Annual World Tourism Conference in Kigali, Rwanda. According to Euromonitor International’s new data, international arrivals to Africa grew by 6.5 % in 2017, to reach 18,550 million, up from 16,351 million in 2012. Key markets such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Cameroon, Mauritius and Tanzania accounted for 70 % of international trips to the Sub-Saharan African region.
  • U.S. warns South Sudan: Continued chaos is not acceptable, aid may be pulled

    2017/09/03 The top U.S. official for humanitarian aid has delivered a stern warning to South Sudan’s president that the Trump administration is reexamining its policy toward one of the world's poorest and most dangerous countries as the African nation slides into lawlessness. Mark Green, the administrator for the United States Agency for International Development, met Friday with President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Green said he raised U.S. concerns over the dangers humanitarian aid workers face in delivering food and medicine in the country as well as a pervasive climate of criminal activity by government forces, criminal gangs and opposition forces. Since civil war erupted almost four years ago, a third of South Sudan’s population has become internally displaced or fled the country in Africa’s worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
  • Africa: USA-Africa - No Policy? Bad Policy? or Both?

    2017/08/30 "Africa is terra incognita for the Trump Government: a continent it cares little - and understands even less - about. With no dyed-in-the-wool Trumpian Africa hands available, the government appears ready to cede Africa policy making to career civil servants and a few mainstream Republican appointees." - Matthew T. Page The headline to Page's article in Quartz Africa states that "Donald Trump could be getting his US-Africa policy right by simply not having one." His view is actually additional nuanced, in judging that no policy would likely be only "less bad" than explicitly "bad policy" that may result from better White Home interest in Africa.