South Sudan activists say intimidated for meeting diplomats

At least three local organizations have been told by South Sudan’s government they can no longer operate.

The reports are the latest sign of hostility by the government toward the worldwide community as this East African country, the world’s youngest, tries to recover from a civil war that threatens to grind on.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar have been transferred within neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo for medical treatment by the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, according to an internal Congolese army report.

The U.N. mission in South Sudan said in a statement Thursday it is “deeply concerned” by reports of harassment and intimidation against some civil society members who met with the diplomats in the capital, Juba.

It demanded that President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar “do their utmost to control their respective forces, urgently end the fighting and prevent the spread of violence”.

He added: “One of the points of the conference today is to ensure the United Nations sends more peacekeepers more rapidly, that they are more representative – more women for example involved in peacekeeping – and that they can reassure the civilian populations when they do arrive.to keep the peace”.

“Between 24 August and 5 September, MONUSCO further extracted some 300 individuals, including 90 civilians from the Garamba National Park on humanitarian grounds, many of whom were assessed to be in life-threatening condition”.

“About 500 fighters of (Riek Machar) have been evacuated and sent to Goma”.

He said all those SPLM in opposition elements who were armed handed over their weapons to MONUSCO before being evacuated.

Dujarric said the supporters of opposition leader Riek Machar were found in the area around Garamba and evacuated by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo to “receive urgent medical assistance, pending their voluntary disarmament”.

He said the officers and troops that crossed into DRC will be transported into the opposition’s controlled areas to join their leader.

Tens of thousands of people died in the South Sudanese civil war which began in December 2013.

A peace deal reached in August 2015 which established a unity government has been violated regularly by fighting.