The UN Mission in South Sudan - UNMISS, has condemned the rising wave of insecurity in parts of the country including in Mayom County, where an attack on a convoy in Adok earlier in the week left a Member of Parliament wounded. The injured MP was treated in a clinic run by the UN Mission in South Sudan.

UNMISS has cautioned that the rhetoric of incitement does not help and does not answer the problems of South Sudan.

Speaking to Miraya Breakfast show, Yasmina Bouziane, UNMISS Principal Public Information officer, stressed the need to cease any hostilities between armed combatants and reiterated the need for commanders to control their forces and desist from attacking unarmed civilians.

The UN Mission in South Sudan - UNMISS, has condemned the rising wave of insecurity in parts of the country including in Mayom County, where an attack on a convoy in Adok earlier in the week left a Member of Parliament wounded. The injured MP was treated in a clinic run by the UN Mission in South Sudan.

UNMISS has cautioned that the rhetoric of incitement does not help and does not answer the problems of South Sudan.

Speaking to Miraya Breakfast show, Yasmina Bouziane, UNMISS Principal Public Information officer, stressed the need to cease any hostilities between armed combatants and reiterated the need for commanders to control their forces and desist from attacking unarmed civilians.

Sixteen students from the University of Juba are currently giving up a week of their school programme to develop mobile phone applications for peace building and literacy in South Sudan.

The Boot Camp is the brainchild of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO and the United Nations Development Program – UNDP.

With support from Web Africa, a Nairobi based ICT organization; the Students are going through an extensive workshop on mobile app development. 

Awol Endris, UNESCO Education Specialist, said the students will be exposed to all aspects of developing applications that relevant to share peace messages through mobile phones.

“There are two applications that are being developed; the PeaceApp and the LiteracyApp and we decided to work on these two applications because the subjects of these two applications would help in spreading messages of peace,” said Edris.

He hopes that the apps will provide the youth with an opportunity to use their mobile phones to improve literacy and numeric skills.

UNDP’s Peace Building Specialist, Julia Odumuyiwa, explained that the apps are designed to support efforts to build a culture of peace in South Sudan and engage young people to learn more about peace building and what role they can play.

When completed, the apps will be uploaded on the internet and users will be able to download them on their smartphones.

“It is important the student here they improve their skills in developing those applications we want to bring out the content and we also want the wider community to benefit from this,” said Julia.

Sebit Clement Juma and Poni Wani, both fresh graduates of computer science from the University of Juba, believe that the peace and literacy apps will communicate information to promote the concept of peace in South Sudan.

“We hope that this technology will change the people, what we have in mind is to send positive peace messages using technology applications developed by South Sudanese.”

The Executive Director of the Community for Progress Organization, is lobbying a US-based social media platform, Facebook, to either block or censor pages that incite and promote hate speech in South Sudan. 

Civil Society leader, Edmund Yakani, met with the US Ambassador to the United Nation, Samantha Power, and discussed the vital need to end hate speech and ethnic targeting in the country.

During the meeting in New York City, last week, Yakani briefed Ambassador Power about the dangers social media is posing in South Sudan.  Yakani noted that hate speech is being generated by politically minded people who “open various social media accounts and post hate motivated messaging, slogans and pictures, causing panic in the country.”

Speaking to Radio Miraya, Yakani said that civil society is trying to ensure online platforms like Facebook cease to offer opportunities for online hate speech.

“Let them help us in terms of social media control, the idea is that if there is anything about South Sudan, it categorizes ethnicity it categorizes hate speech, like uploading wrong pictures let them help us by blocking it,” said Yakani. He acknowledged that the problem of hate speech must be dealt with because it is becoming increasingly dangerous.

“There is an urgent need to deal with hate speech and ethnic targeting,” said Yakani “violence is not an option, we deserve to live together peacefully,” he stressed.

As part of the steps being taken to control hate speech, civil society organizations in South Sudan must send vital messages to young people across the country stressing,  “hate speech is not the best way to deal with issues,” said Yakani.

In a related development, the UN High commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has warned that an increase in hate speech and the ultimate incitement of violence in South Sudan is highly dangerous and could very well result in mass atrocities if not reined in immediately.

Zeid urged President Salva Kiir and all leaders with influence to urgently and unambiguously condemn the incitement to violence and to take urgent measures to defuse the tensions.

On his part, the Chairman of Peace and Security  Council of the IDPS in UNMISS’s camp Mathew Choul acknowledged the role of United Nations  in providing security and safety among other necessities to the internal displaced Persons in the  UN Camp site in Upper Nile.

 “I’m talking about the achievements of the United Nations that I benefited herein. The United  Nations has achieved many ranges and among them is the Protection of Civilians like those vulnerable IDPS who fled from the violence occurred in the Country. For us as Internal displaced Persons IDPS in Malakal, we have benefited a lot from the United Nations because we felt like born again children.”

United Nations Day is  devoted  to making known to people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations   Organization.  The    United    Nations    Mission    in    South Sudan UNMISS established following independence of   South Sudan to support peace agreement in the Country.

The new United Nations Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan says it is important for the two countries to maintain cordial relations in the interest of internal and regional peace.  Nicholas Haysom arrived in Juba on Wednesday, on his first visit to South Sudan since his appointment in March this year. Speaking exclusively to Radio Miraya, Mr Haysom said North-South relations are vital for regional peace.

“South Sudan and to some extent Sudan are poised on very dramatic moments in each country’s history, and you know when one is trying to deal with North-South relations, one has to recognise that the internal situations in the North and South have a dramatic impact on the capacity of both countries to interact positively, but I need to say it is up to South Sudan to resolve the insecurity that is now pervasive.”

Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nicholas Haysom takes over from Haile Menkerios who is now United Nations Special Representative to the African Union.  Mr Maysom says he has a personal commitment to effect his mandate.

“I was very deeply and closely involved in the negotiation and drafting of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement so the people of South Sudan and Sudan remain close to my heart.  It is also a great source of pain if the country were to stumble and go through a period of horrible violence and conflict.”

Nicholas Haysom previously served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Afghanistan and is in South Sudan to meet with government officials and stakeholders.

Date: 11.10.2016
Duration: 8:56
Language: English
Producer: Sebit William

An estimated 52 per cent of the girls in South Sudan woke up this morning and found themselves to be out of school. The same will happen tomorrow. Many of them are girls who got married before the age of 18. They do not, according to the international children's agency Save the Children, enjoy the same rights to education as boys do.

Supporting the girls out of school and helping them join and stay in school is a call that Acol Majur, a student at Dr John Garang National Memorial secondary school in Juba, made at this year’s International Day of the Girl Child.

The theme this year focusses on the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the slogan of the day is; “ “Girls' progress equals goals; what counts for girls”

For Acol, what counts for girls in South Sudan is parental support, recognition of girls not as a source of wealth but as tools for progress and consistent acknowledgement of the fact that girls also matter in society.

Sebit William has been speaking with Acol Majur.

Date: 12.10.2016
Duration: 4:33
Language: English
Producer: Sebit William

“More violence is going to lead to more South Sudanese dying and that could result in losing this country, it does not contribute anything good for us,” Augustino Ting Mayai, director of Research at the Sudd Institute, a local think tank in South Sudan, has said.

Augustino has just published an article titled  The Proliferating Rebellion in South Sudan: Its Explanations and Implications, in which he explores the drivers of conflict in South Sudan and provides prescriptions for the path to stability.

In the article, Augustino observes that political dialogues that are normally conducted in other countries to lead to transformation are not being utilized in South Sudan.

Miraya Breakfast show host, Sebit William, caught up with Augustino and began by asking what inspired him to write his latest scholar article.

The African Union has launched a campaign to put pressure on South Sudanese authorities to end violence against women and girls.

The campaign is calling for the voices of the women and vulnerable to be heard and echoed for justice, sustainable peace and development to prevail. 

“We cannot accept this pervasive and ongoing sexual violence against women”, African Union Commission Chairperson, H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said.

Condemning impunity in the strongest terms, H.E. Dr. Zuma reiterated the AU’s “zero-tolerance” policy on sexual and gender-based violence.

Driven on social media, campaign voices will be raised on Twitter and Facebook under #4womenofSouth Sudan.  The African Union declared 2016 the “year of human rights with a particular focus on women’s rights.”

We bring you the full statement of AU Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.