How to Ensure Lasting Peace in South Sudan | TIME

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South Sudan is among the more tragic examples of how the United States has failed to uphold the CSPA and protect children from exploitation and harm.

The fledgling country is among the most corrupt in the world. Local power brokers—including President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, the leaders of rival factions now engaged in a 3-year-old civil war—have used their positions to plunder the country of its wealth, while subjecting their citizens to one of the most hellish humanitarian disasters on earth.

Among their many crimes, South Sudan’s security forces have been known to recruit child soldiers since the country gained independence in 2011, but recruitment increased rapidly once hostilities began between the government’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and various rebel groups associated with the opposition in December 2013.

According to the United Nations, coercion—including threats of violence against family members and attacks on villages—is widely employed to force children into combat. In 2015 alone, recruitment efforts affected more than 2,500 children. The SPLA and other government-supported armed groups were responsible for the majority of those cases. And despite appearing on the CSPA list since 2012, the U.S. government has withheld only $1.2 million of security assistance, while providing $99 million.

Obama’s failed policy on South Sudan

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[Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said] that Somalia “has become one of the few countries to have managed to reduce the threat of terrorism and it will get rid of the al-Shabaab tumor soon.” 

Over 20,000 troops are stationed in Somalia as part of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) fighting the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab movement, which was created at the beginning of 2004.

The Somali president stressed on the importance of also fighting al-Shabaab’s ideas.

“The tools [to win] this war will come through encouraging education and opening scientific and intellectual centers to fight the terrorists’ ideas, as well as fighting against poverty, which indeed feeds the ideas of extremism,” he said.

“I think this can be accomplished by providing the required development for the country’s economy, which enables us to create job opportunities for the young people [in order] to dry up the sources of terrorism in our country,” he added.

Somali president: We will get rid of al-Shabaab tumor

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At least six people killed in attack on residential building in border region often targeted by Somali armed group.

Al-Shabab blamed for attack in northeast Kenya – News from Al Jazeera

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Concerns are emerging after photographs emerged of alleged al Shabaab militants supplying food to residents of areas they control in southern Somalia.

…The act by the militants has caused outrage on social media with many wondering how the terror group could bring in such large amounts of food into the area without detection from the Somali government and the African Mission to Somalia (Amisom) forces.

Al-Shabaab militants cause outrage over food supply ▷ Tuko.co.ke

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