BBC report about the latest clashes in Abyei (oil rich region in Sudan)

source: BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7402305.stm)

Sudan clashes prompt UN pull-out

The UN has withdrawn non-essential staff from Sudan's town of Abyei after a day of clashes between government forces and southern former rebels.

UN spokesman Khaled Mansour told the BBC two soldiers had died on each side.

He said the dispute over the status of Abyei could jeopardise a 2005 whole peace deal which ended years of war.

Four Indian oil workers have been taken hostage in Abyei, according to the Indian ambassador. It is not clear who is behind the kidnapping.

"We believe the abductors didn't know they were Indian," Deepak Vohra told the AFP news agency.

"They're in good condition, they're in fine fettle."

The Jem rebel group from the Darfur region, which has in the past kidnapped Chinese oil workers in the nearby Kordofan State, denied responsibility.

Jem on Saturday attacked the capital, Khartoum, and threatened to attack oil installations.

The north-south civil war, separate from the Darfur conflict, is said to have cost the lives of 1.5 million people.

Three years after the signing of a peace deal, an administration is yet to be set up in Abyei, which is claimed by both north and south.

"This is indeed one of the most serious issues facing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between south and north," Mr Mansour told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said because of the dispute the town lacked even the most basic services which made the area a "tinderbox".

As part of the 2005 peace deal, the south is due to vote in 2011 on whether or not to seek independence from the north.

"Everybody's talking about it in the media as a rich oil-rich town, but it's a very poor town and that's why people are on edge."

Deng Kual Deng, a resident of the town, told the BBC that the market area had been hit by mortar fire, but that there had been a lull in fighting overnight.

Attacks on aid staff hinder work in South Sudan

Source: Reuters News,
Website (http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSMCD951462)

JUBA, Sudan, May 9 (Reuters) - At least 25 attacks on aid workers in south Sudan's capital Juba in the past two months have forced staff to relocate and is hindering development in the region recovering from Africa's longest civil war, aid officials said on Friday.

A 2005 north-south peace deal attracted thousands of aid workers and millions of dollars of donor money to rebuild the south after the war that raged on and off since 1955.

With a myriad of armed men running around the south -- militias, unpaid southern army soldiers, disgruntled armed civilians -- the foreign workers in tiny Juba town have become targets for armed robbery and looting.

"(This week) every night we were targeted ... Some NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) have already relocated their staff," said Claire Debard, from Handicap International who is also the NGO security pointman in Juba.

U.N. officials said there had been at least 25 attacks on Sudanese, international aid agencies and foreign-owned hotels where many of them live in the past two months.

"They are blatantly targeting U.N. and NGO compounds," one U.N. official who requested anonymity said, adding that the gangs of between six to 10 armed men were often in army uniform.

South Sudan's police spokesman Machar Akau told Reuters he was aware of 15 incidents and said local residents were equally at risk. "It is happening to all people," he said.

One northern Sudanese trader was shot dead, U.N. sources said, the only known fatality. The police force is still being reorganised and is too small to cover the town, Akau said.

"It is not one gang but a network of criminals, it is organised. (It is) very new, it was not happening before," Akau said, adding that the south's fluid borders may have allowed criminals from neighbouring countries to enter.

He said the thieves could be former militia soldiers who have not been integrated into the south's army.

Another police official, David Okwier Akway, said six men were arrested last week in connection with burglaries. Residents are typically forced to lie down at gunpoint while others loot.

"Work has come to a halt," said Kashinath Bhoosnurmath, the deputy country director of Save the Children UK. Non-essential staff have been relocated after two of the agency's guesthouses were attacked on the same night, he said.

"If this continues then we will have to reduce staff further to a minimum," Bhoosnurmath added.

Debard said barbed wire and other security measures were being used, creating a barrier between them and the people they are trying to help.

"Many NGO staff are already spending their time doing security when they should be managing projects," she added.

Around 2 million people were killed in the north-south conflict, separate from violence in Sudan's western Darfur region. (Editing by Opheera McDoom)

Call for watchdogs

So we have that tense security situation here in Juba. During the last 3-4 weeks, nearly every night another compound of an international NGO got robbed, looted or at least these armed criminals tried to. There are about 150 NGOs here in Juba doing their things, for some of them I really don't know what they are doing. Anyway, so there is quite a bunch of white people around here. White people are associated with money, even if they are poor for Western standards. For criminals, sure, white is rich.

So we prepared ... [CENSORED] ... to be attentive and awake, as they are paid to be awake. ... [CENSORED] ... for criminals to get in. 2 weeks ago, there were ... [CENSORED] ... . So it's getting quieter.

Somehow I couldn't sleep last night, watching a movie till 12 and then lying in bed eyes open, no sleep in sight. ... [CENSORED] ... Everything quite quiet. ... [CENSORED] ... , ... [CENSORED] ... . ... [CENSORED] ... If he thinks if all that is a joke, if we are in kindergarten. ... [CENSORED] ... checking the walls. ... [CENSORED] ...

Asking the first ... [CENSORED] ...

Can anyone send some trained Rottweilers or Dobermans to Juba. There would be good money in that with all these NGOs looking for security services.

Mit Rasierklingendraht

wurden jetzt die Mauern, ... [ZENSUR]. Sieht furchtbar aus, wie ein Hochsicherheitstrakt. Aber es hat seinen Grund. Zurzeit werden in Juba beinahe jede Nacht die Compounds von internationalen NGOs überfallen. Bewaffnete Gruppen von 4 bis 6 Personen haben in den letzten 3 Wochen um die 10 Unterkünfte überfallen oder zumindest versucht einzudringen. Die Sicherheitsmassnahmen wurden jetzt verstärkt, zum Beispiel... [ZENSUR]. In unserem Guesthouse waren noch bis vor 3 Wochen etwa 20 internationale Mitarbeiter, jetzt sind wir 6, die meisten wurden nach Loki (Kenya) ausgeflogen. Gestern um 5 Uhr nachmittags hatten wir ein Sicherheits-Meeting mit den anderen NGOs. Die Funk-Frequenzen wurden ... [ZENSUR]. Jeder Expat ... [ZENSUR]. Bis jetzt wurde bei diesen Ueberfällen niemand verletzt, das muss man ja auch dazu sagen. Und es ist jetzt auch nicht so, dass die Leute hier in Panik sind. Schon ist da so ein kleines beunruhigendes Gefühl vorhanden, das aber noch nicht dominierend ist, sondern einfach da ist.

Damit die ganze Sache noch spannender wird, beginnt heute ein Treffen der SPLA, der South Sudanese Liberation Army, die die letzten 20 Jahre gegen die nordsudanesische SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) gekämpft hatte, und jetzt die Regierung im Südsudan bildet. Während dieses Treffens hat die UN die Ausgangssperre auf 22.00 Uhr verkürzt. Das heisst, keine Bewegungen auf den Strassen Jubas. Innerhalb der SPLA gibt es Spannungen, verschiedene Auffassungen wie das Land geführt werden kann, ob gemeinsam mit dem Nordsudan oder unabhängig als New Sudan. Es wird erwartet, dass zu diesem Treffen viele hochrangige Offiziere in Juba ankommen, viel Militärpräsenz nicht nur in den Regierungsgebäuden sondern auch in Restaurants und auf den Strassen, in ganz Juba eben.

Projektmässig haben wir nach der ... [ZENSUR]. Dort wurden für die Volkszählung ... [ZENSUR]. Auf jeden Fall wurden dann um die 1200 Familien auf der grünen Wiese abgeladen, ohne Unterkunft, ohne Verpflegung. Die UN fühlen sich nicht verantwortlich, weil es sich um unregistrierte Personen handelt. ... [ZENSUR]. ... [ZENSUR] Verteilung von non-food-items und Food, und medizinischer Unterstützung mitzuhelfen.

Ja so schaut das alles im Moment in etwa aus.

. _

It can be a very pleasant walk home, from the base to the guest house. Sometimes all the dust in the air makes incredible sunsets where the sky turns amber allover Juba.


just outside the base

Zanzibar shots

Those little Colubus monkeys


Colubus fellow


Lonely beachside


Matemwe beach


Stonetown out of the window


Stonetown corners


Where the fish arrives in Stonetown


Small fish


Paje beach view

Treatment for Airtime

Yes, I am still on holiday. Here on Zanzibar, very pretty island with white beaches, turquoise water, blablabla. So I went snorkeling 4 days ago. Went on this trip with a speed boat to an close island called Pnemba. Pnemba is also very pretty, very small, the beach even whiter than Zanzibar, the water even light-blue. Zanzibar can be jelaous about Pnemba. But, this little treasure was sold, to a private person. Very African indeed, just to sell things that should be open to the public. With public I mean the local community, not necessarily tourists. So one of the Zanzibar politicians got a lucky pocketmoney for selling this small island to a private investor from South Africa. Such things are so sick. Another story, but same fashion happened in Uganda a couple of weeks ago. The source of the White Nile that flows all the way to the Mediterranean Sea is in Uganda, a small place called Jinja. A foreign investor, forgot which nationality, I think it was a European investor, Belgian or some damn place. They sold the source of the White Nile to a Belgian! Their plan is to develop the place into some luxury tourist thing, doing loads of money with that. Isn't that just wrong?

Sorry for the excurs, now back to the snorkelling. Beautiful, colorful fishes, sea snakes, morays, stingrays, fancy lion fishes. Was worth it. A day later, pain in the left ear. Getting worse and worse. I couldn't move the left half of my face, my inner ear must have been completely swollen. No doctor available at this place Matemwe, also no ear drops / crappy diving school. So I went back to Stone Town, the capital here on Zanzibar, and went to a pharmacy to get antibiotics, painkillers and ear drops. I was a lucky guy, they had even a doctor in the pharmacy. I dropped into his office. He was a tiny muslim guy, about 70 years, very sympathic eyes. Asking me what happened, I explained him the pain that's driving me crazy and that it probably came from the snorkelling. He took a look at my ear, didn't see anything, then opened his drawer and grabbed this flashlight/magnifier/earthing (don't even know the name of that tool in German) to see what's happening inside my left ear. "Don't worry" he said, I asked him if it's red and swollen, because it hurts like hell. "A little" he said "just take these drugs and it will be fine". Having received the prescription, I asked him "What do you get?". He means "it's ok". Shortly hesitating he points on his mobile phone and adds "I would need some money for airtime for my mobile phone".