South Sudan

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Pope Admonishes Nation Over Treatment of Women

Future of South Sudan, where sexual violence is rampant, depends on change, Francis says

(Newser) - Pope Francis warned Saturday that South Sudan’s future depends on how it treats its women, as he highlighted their horrific plight in a country where sexual violence is rampant, child brides are common, and the maternal mortality rate is the highest in the world. On his second and penultimate...

The Wedding May Save a Family. But the Bride Is 8

Experts warn of child marriage, for some an alternative to starvation, amid catastrophe

(Newser) - Nyekuoth Manyuan dreamed of becoming a doctor. Instead, at 14, she was taken from her village of Kueryiek in South Sudan and wed to a 25-year-old man in exchange for 60 cattle. "I know I'm young," Nyekuoth told CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta. "But the...

Ongoing Issue Leads Pope to Nix Africa Trip

Vatican said it was canceled on doctors' orders

(Newser) - Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors' orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, dashing hopes of the faithful there and raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff. The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo...

Unidentified Illness Investigated in South Sudan

Nearly 100 people have died

(Newser) - The World Health Organization is keeping an eye on a still-unidentified illness that has killed nearly 100 people in South Sudan in recent weeks, reports ABC News . So far, the elderly and children have accounted for most of the deaths in Jonglei State, after symptoms that included cough, diarrhea, fever,...

Huge Dowry, Huge Uproar for Underage Bride

Man in South Sudan hands over 500 cows, plus cash and car for 17-year-old

(Newser) - Five hundred cows, two luxury cars, $10,000, two bikes, a boat, and a few cell phones made up the final price in a heated bidding war for a teenage bride in South Sudan that went viral after the auction was pointed out on Facebook. The government says it's...

What's Happening in South Sudan Is Horrifying

The AP reports on 14 unreleased reports on atrocities there

(Newser) - The accounts are horrific. A young girl strangled and gang-raped. Children burned alive as government soldiers blocked the door of their hut and set it aflame. These are some of the atrocities revealed in 14 reports, seen by the AP , that have not yet been released by the independent body...

East Africa Doesn't Want 'Clothes of Dead White People' Anymore

And the US isn't happy about it

(Newser) - Seventy percent of donated second-hand clothing ends up in Africa, and a number of African nations are tired of it, the New York Times reports. Last year, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Burundi, and Kenya raised import tariffs on what Kenyans call the "clothes of dead white people" so...

American Reporter Killed in South Sudan Fighting
US Journalist Dead
in South Sudan
Aug 27, 2017 9:39 AM CDT

US Journalist Dead in South Sudan

Freelancer Christopher Allen is killed in fighting

(Newser) - A brutal civil war in the world's youngest country has claimed the life of an American journalist. Freelancer Christopher Allen, who had been embedded with rebel troops, was killed during a battle with government soldiers in the South Sudan town of Kaya, reports Reuters . The State Department has confirmed...

The World Now Has a Record Number of Refugees

Figure is 22.5M; in all, 65M are living displaced from their homes

(Newser) - The world broke a grim record last year, with 65.6 million people living forcibly displaced from their homes, an increase of 300,000 over 2015. Most of those people—40.3 million—were displaced but still living within their own countries, per a new report by the UN refugee...

Vaccine Workers' Mistakes Kill 15 Kids in South Sudan

Measles campaign didn't follow hygiene protocol

(Newser) - Health workers vaccinating children in South Sudan against measles last month used the same syringe for all the children without sterilizing it and did not properly refrigerate the vaccine during storage, leading to the deaths of at least 15 children. Of the 300 or so children vaccinated between May 2-5...

UN Report Describes the Hell That Is South Sudan

Country wracked by civil war, ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and famine

(Newser) - A new United Nations report paints a bleak picture of South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and experiencing ethnic cleansing, adding to crises that now include famine and systematic rape in the three-year-old civil war. The seven-month inquiry by the UN Commission on Human Rights into South...

Nearly 1.4M Children Face 'Imminent Death': UN

Famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen endangers children

(Newser) - The UN children's agency is warning that almost 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk of death" as famine threatens parts of South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen, the AP reports. The UNICEF announcement comes a day after famine was declared in parts of Unity state in...

From 3.5M Cases to Just 25: a Disease Nearly Vanquished

Jimmy Carter's efforts to fight Guinea worm disease have left just 3 countries affected

(Newser) - Jimmy Carter, who's been working for decades to eradicate Guinea worm disease, says only 25 human cases of the illness were reported worldwide in 2016. When the Carter Center joined the battle to eliminate Guinea worm disease in the mid-1980s, there were about 3.5 million cases in 21...

Report: UN Peacekeepers Did Nothing as Women Were Raped

The AP reported on the July 11 incident in Juba, South Sudan

(Newser) - United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon is launching an independent investigation into allegations that UN peacekeepers did not respond to prevent multiple cases of abuse and sexual violence against civilians and foreigners in South Sudan's capital, reports the AP . The AP this week reported that on July 11, South Sudanese...

3 Rare Giraffes Killed Over Their Tails

'What an absolute waste'

(Newser) - Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to elephants, rhinos, and giraffes—well, it used to be. Because of poaching, elephant numbers are dwindling, the rhinos are all gone, and the rare Kordofan giraffes may be headed that way. Just 2,000 of the giraffes...

Why US Troops Were Just Sent to the World's Newest Nation

South Sudan may be headed to civil war

(Newser) - It's a mere five years old , but South Sudan is on the brink of civil war. What's more, the situation is so dire that the US just brought in 40 additional troops to protect the US Embassy in Juba. Some coverage to explain what's happening:
  • The fight
...

More Than 100 Killed as Shooting Erupts Outside Peace Talks

South Sudan fears return of civil war

(Newser) - Soldiers brought scores of bodies to a hospital in South Sudan's capital after gunfire erupted throughout Juba on Friday evening, a doctor at the hospital said Saturday, as panicked residents worried of a return to civil war. The morgue is full at Juba Teaching Hospital, the doctor said, but...

New Ebola-Like Disease Is Emerging

WHO tracks mysterious South Sudan fever

(Newser) - South Sudan, the world's newest country and one of its most troubled, may be home to the world's newest disease. The World Health Organization says it is closely tracking an outbreak of a mysterious hemorrhagic fever that has killed at least 10 people in the country this year...

UN Report Details South Sudan's Use of Rape as 'Instrument of Terror'

'One of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world'

(Newser) - A UN report describing sweeping crimes like children and the disabled being burned alive and fighters being allowed to rape women as payment shows South Sudan is facing "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world," the UN human rights chief said Friday. Zeid Raad...

Lit Cigarette Causes Deadly Oil Truck Blast: Officials

More than 100 may have been killed as they siphoned fuel from South Sudan tanker

(Newser) - Local officials say hospitals in the Western Equatoria of South Sudan are struggling to deal with the dead and wounded after an oil truck exploded yesterday, killing between 85 and 100 people so far and injuring at least 50, the AP and Reuters report. Why there were so many people...

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