News Round-Up

It’s been awhile since I posted some links to news stories about South Sudan. I’ve been hearing from people at home that they aren’t seeing the Sudans in the news anymore… unfortunately this does not mean that all our problems are solved; it only means that the global media has lost interest. While we have dropped out of the headlines, some reporting is still going on. Here are a few clips that caught my interest this week.

Here's an indignant opinion piece explaining the ongoing human rights abuses in Darfur, Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan, and elsewhere. “In these marginalized areas, as in Darfur, Sudan is violating basic precepts of international law with total impunity.”

Part of the reason for the “total impunity”? The fact that Sudan’s President Omar Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, yet continues to travel to signatory countries without being arrested. In this article, the ICC asks Malawi to explain why they think arresting Bashir is not their “business.”

This article is actually a few months old, but I just found it and think it paints a heart-breakingly accurate portrait of the “tea ladies” of the Sudans. “The tea ladies of the Sudanese capital are widowed, broken, struggling, alone. Thousands of them have fled poverty, escaped wars, buried families; age has crept upon them. Spreading out across the city, dressed in colors that seem robbed from rainbows and peacocks, they tarry in the shade of trees and buildings, next to shoe-shine boys and men selling phone cards, pouring until dusk, hiding their stoves, disappearing with the night.”

Small Arms Survey is launching a “Sudan Arms and Ammunition Tracing Desk” to investigate the weapons found among South Sudan’s many armed groups to determine their source (as in, where are they being manufactured and who is providing them to South Sudan). Their first report as their preliminary observations on weapons from two rebel leader’s forces- Peter Gadet and George Athor. Most troubling? Many of the weapons are brand new.


Inflation in South Sudan has now reached 61%! Obviously, inflation at those rates is no easy thing for an impoverished country or family.

Finally, South Sudan’s Parliament passed a bill this week changing the language of instruction in the country’s schools from Arabic to English. This is actually a very big and symbolic change, and I’m sure it will be deeply felt… by the 16% of South Sudanese who are literate.

That’s the news from our home. What’s going on where you live?

-Stephanie

Photo courtesy of the Small Arms Survey