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US and UK pursuing a ‘massive land grab’ in South Sudan

RT,

24 December, 2013

Salva Kiir government in South Sudan is effectively “a terrorist government put in power by the West” to tap into country’s vast resources, war correspondent Keith Harmon Snow, told RT.

RT: How possible is another irrevocable split - this time of South Sudan? Or has that already happened in reality?

Keith Harmon Snow: It is already happening in reality. The fighting since December 15 has led to the murder of about 5,000 people in the Juba area according to reports we are getting from South Sudan. Of course, none of this is in the international media at all; the international press is completely relying on the government of Salva Kiir for their facts and their information. And the government of Salva Kiir is effectively a terrorist government put in power by the West.

RT: What interests are the US and UK pursuing in South Sudan? Why they are involved there?

KS: Massive land grab! We are talking about agricultural resources that have not been tapped into that [huge] agribusiness want to take control of it. Sudan is home to massive properties that are producing, or have produced in the past, the main ingredient for soft drinks and ice cream, which is gum-arabic. The Darfur area in particular was [important] because the gum-arabic produced there [accounts for two-thirds] of the world’s supply, and it's the best gum-arabic in the world. South Sudan has mining reserves and it also has massive oil reserves. Those are the biggest interests: land, oil, mining and agricultural production.

RT: How is the conflict affecting the oil industry and what is the international community doing about it?

KS: The oil industry in Sudan has backed the terrorism that happened there and agents of power that have put in place the government of Salva Kiir. The agents that supported the South Sudan, Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), would be the government of Uganda and powerful factions from the United States, including cooperative executives from the oil companies.

The interests of the oil companies have been served by bringing the SPLA into power, which they did, and they succeeded in creating a separate independent state called South Sudan. In the process, the oil has continued to flow out of South Sudan. They have brought about this situation and every day there is killing inside South Sudan; it benefits the oil companies because if you remove the people you have greater control of the land.

andout photo from UNMISS shows officers from the UNMISS Japanese contingent provide water to civilians seeking refuge in UN House, the UNMISS (United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan) compound on the southwestern outskirts of Juba on December 16, 2013. (AFP/UNMISS)

RT: How strong are the government's forces now?

KS: The Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which would be the government forces, has been split into several factions, and in the fight that has occurred recently has been the faction that is the government in power: Salva Kiir, versus Riek Machar. Both of these guys, Riek Machar and Salva Kiir, were from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army previously.

[The] government [of] Salva Kiir has perpetrated massive atrocities against the Luo-Nuer since December 15, especially the Nuer people in the Juba area, where the reports are 5,000 killed; and that would be mostly women and children, non-combatants of any sort. I don't see any possibility of what we would call democracy in South Sudan.

RT: Tens of thousands of civilians have found shelter in UN compounds. How vulnerable are they at this point?

KS: You have to look at the UN occupation of South Sudan as a part of a complete occupation, domination and expropriation of the land of Sudan from the people of Sudan. The UN interests in Sudan serve the power structures, they don’t serve the people.

The fact that they have created a refugee camp is just another business opportunity for organizations like Save the children, or the Norwegian People’s Aid, which has [projected] itself as a humanitarian organization, and has actually shipped weapons into South Sudan. You have to look at this from this prospective: the UN, the African Union, the Ugandan troops, and there are 3,000 Ugandan troops currently in South Sudan backed by the Pentagon, backed by the African command of the Pentagon.

This is what’s going down in South Sudan. It’s not an internal tribal war, it’s a western corporate occupation and what we would call pacification of South Sudan strictly for the land grab and for the resource grab that’s going on. And the people that are suffering the atrocities committed by the government of Salva Kiir have started to fight back. [The] Nuer were unhappy with the Dinka government, which has now turned on the Nuer people, and that’s where the war comes from.

A guy at Smith college, Dr. Eric Reeves, has been a number one propagandist about South Sudan being the victims of atrocities for all these years, when in fact the government today, the Sudan people’s Liberation government, has been the power that has been committing those atrocities in South Sudan as well as in North Sudan.

Muslim Brotherhood declared terrorists: 'Expect more bloodshed in Egypt'

The Muslim Brotherhood has officially been named a terrorist group in Egypt - less than a year after its candidate Mohammed Morsi won the presidential election. Now, the group is outlawed by the country's military-backed interim government, which ousted Morsi six months ago. Cairo-based journalist Shahira Amin says things will only get worse from here.

Lethal Aid: US arms Iraq to fight Al-Qaeda

In an attempt to beat back gains by Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, the United States is moving "dozens" of Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones into Iraq.

U.N. Asks U.S. To Justify Latest "Cruel, Inhuman" Drone Attack That Killed 15 Yemen Civilians In A Wedding

 

Zero Hedge,

26 December, 2013

Imagine, if you will, that you and your 15 closest unarmed, civilian friends are celebrating a young couple who has just started their lives together, and are on your way to their wedding party, when all of a sudden a remote-controlled US killing machine drops several air-to-surface tactical missiles on your group and kills you before you have a chance to blink. Macabre as it sounds, this is precisely what happened in the conflict-torn (courtesy of the CIA) republic of Yemen last month when a US drone mistakenly killed 15 people.

The US justification: the 15 civilians were mistaken for an Al Qaeda convoy (good thing this was not in Syria, where such an Al Qaeda convoy would have received US arms and funding), and in keeping with the US "superpower" walkthrough, the missiles were launched first, and questions would be asked later if ever. And while this happens daily around the globe (remember: they hate America for its freedoms, not because it rains hellfire on civilians without reason), this time the United Nations human rights watch actually had the temerity of calling out the US on its latest act of mass murder.

Reuters has the full story:

United Nations human rights experts told the United States and Yemen on Thursday to saywhether they were complicit in drone attacks that mistakenly killed civilians in wedding processions this month.

The independent experts questioned the legitimacy of drone attacks under international law and said the governments should reveal what targeting procedures were used.

Local security officials said on December 12 that 15 people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy. The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.

Stressing the need for accountability and payment to victims' families, the U.N. statement issued in Geneva said that two attacks, on two separate wedding processions, killed 16 and wounded at least 10 people.

"If armed drones are to be used, states must adhere to international humanitarian law, and should disclose the legal basis for their operational responsibility and criteria for targeting," said Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

Poor Yemen, unclear that others' sovereignty does not matter to the US, voiced a feeble protest: "Yemen cannot consent to violations of the right to life of people in its territory," he added." Good luck with non-consenting.

However, it was the UN that surprised onlookers with one of the harshest condemnations of what is essentially unaccountable murder by an American remote-control plane, controlled from thousands of miles away:

Juan Mendez, U.N. special rapporteur on torture, voiced concern about the legitimacy of the airstrikes. Each state was obliged to undertake due investigation into the reported incidents, including their effect on civilians, he said.

"A deadly attack on illegitimate targets amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment if, as in this case, it results in serious physical or mental pain and suffering for the innocent victims," Mendez said.

Wait, so cruel, inhuman and degra.... oh look, another all time high for the S&P! Quick BTFATH, and ignore all this irrelevant "stuff."

South Sudan

Rebel claims control of oil state

Former South Sudan vice-president Riek Machar says his troops have seized an oil-producing area and now control much of the country.

Radio NZ,

22 December, 2013

More than 500 people have died in the past week since President Salva Kiir accused Mr Machar of staging a coup attempt.

Mr Machar told the BBC that the forces fighting the government were under his command.

Oil accounts for more than 95% of the country's economy, and the state, Unity, which Mr Machar said his forces have captured, produces much of South Sudan's oil.

The former vice-president said he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested earlier this week after the coup attempt was announced were released.

His comments came as several US military personnel were wounded when their aircraft came under fire while evacuating US citizens from Bor the capital of eastern Jonglei state.

A US military statement said three CV-22 Ospreys were attacked as they approached Bor, which is occupied by forces loyal to Mr Machar.

Four wounded military personnel were treated in Nairobi, Kenya, and were in a stable condition.

Thousands have fled to Bor to escape the violence.

Jonglei state has seen some of the worst violence since South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, with hundreds killed in periodic clashes between rival heavily-armed ethnic militias.

Reuters reports that the African Union is calling for a ceasefire and that in a statement, it described the killing of UN peacekeepers and civilians at a UN camp as a war crime.

Fighting that began on Sunday in the capital Juba has swiftly spread to other parts of the country, fuelled by ethnic divisions between the main Nuer and Dinka tribal groups.

The African Union said in a statement that its chairwoman, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma "calls for an immediate humanitarian truce for the Christmas season, as a sign of a commitment by all concerned to the well-being of the people of South Sudan".

Travel warning

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is warning New Zealanders against travel to South Sudan, citing armed conflict, civil unrest, terrorism and violent crime.

It says the country poses an extreme risk for travellers and any New Zealanders there should leave, while any New Zealander travelling there should register with the ministry.

It has warned against all travel to within 40 kilometres of South Sudan's northern border with Sudan, citing border disputes and inter-tribal clashes.

The ministry says outside the capital city of Juba, the country is lawless, and the government's ability to help New Zealanders in trouble is severely limited as there is no diplomatic presence in the country

Floods in Sudan

Sudan's worst floods for 25 years leave 500,000 facing destruction and disease

• 48 people die as property and infrastructure is wrecked
• Clashes in South Sudan raise fears over healthcare access

the Guardian

23 August, 2013

Forty-eight people have been killed and more than 500,000 affected by the worst floods in Sudan in quarter of a century.

The region around the capital, Khartoum, was particularly badly hit, with at least 15,000 homes destroyed and thousands of others damaged. Across Sudan, at least 25,000 homes are no longer habitable. A UN official described the situation as a disaster.

The flooding, caused by continuous rains, has damaged public buildings, including schools, clinics, offices, shops, markets and water and sanitation facilities. Roads have been inundated, disrupting transport.

One of the major health worries is the collapse of more than 53,000 latrines; the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of an increase in malaria cases in the past two weeks.

WHO and Unicef, the UN agency for children, are supporting Sudanese authorities and national NGOs to run 50 emergency health clinics. The centres will be open for two months in eight states – Khartoum, White Nile, El Gezira, River Nile, Northern, Blue Nile, North Darfur and South Darfur.

In South Sudan, recent fighting has forced 148,000 people in Pibor country – almost the entire population – to flee to the bush. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the medical NGO, says about 90,000 people are missing. The 28,000 people who have been accounted for are in and around Gumuruk village, where MSF is running a clinic.

The organisation has provided up to 100 consultations a day to people with diseases contracted after spending weeks or months hiding in the bush during the rainy season.

MSF has expressed concern about the absence of men coming for treatment, apparently because they are frightened of seeking help where there is a military presence.

In May, clashes between the South Sudan Army and the David Yau Yau militia intensified in Pibor county, prompting a mass exodus. In July, further violence between the Lou Nuer ethnic group and the Murle, the majority group in the area, triggered a wave of panic. Last month's attacks left 328 people dead, according to a Murle leader.

A woman who received treatment from MSF said her husband was too frightened to visit the clinic. "My husband does not dare enter the village as he is afraid he will be killed. If we run to the town the soldiers might kill us, and if we run to the bush the enemy tribe might kill us," she said.

MSF is also worried about the impact of the fighting on food supplies. "People come to the village and sit all day waiting for food," said Carolina Lopez, its emergency co-ordinator in Pibor county. "Most lost their cattle in the recent fighting, and this year's planting season was plagued with violence, so they are extremely vulnerable. Too many of them turn and walk back through the rain to their temporary shelters in the evening, their bags empty."

The UN military mission in South Sudan said this week it had increased its patrols in Pibor county to allow civilians to return to their towns and access food distribution points. Jonglei state has been plagued by ethnic violence between the Lou Nuer and the Murle, who have a history of animosity over grazing land, water sources and cattle raids that have often involved the abduction of women and children.

Flooding in Sudan, Africa

Sudan flood victims hits 150,000 and rising

More than half the victims, 84,000, are in the area around the capital Khartoum

Global Post,

12 August, 2013

More than half the victims, 84,000, are in the area around the capital Khartoum, said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"More rains are expected in the coming days and the estimated number of affected people is likely to rise further as rains continue and as more information becomes available," OCHA said in a press release.

OCHA's latest estimate follows intense rains on Friday night and is based on information from the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and other agencies.

Heavy rains and flash floods began on August 1, initially affecting almost 100,000 people in several states.

At least 26,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, according to initial estimates cited by OCHA.

Official Radio Omdurman reported on Sunday that the flooding killed 36 people in Nile state north of the capital.

The UN and other agencies have provided aid including tents, plastic sheeting and drinking water, OCHA said.

A volunteer youth group, Nafeer, said on Monday it had found 150 families "trapped" in the Al-Nizeila area on Khartoum's outskirts.

This year's flooding is the worst in the capital region in years but water surges in rural areas of Sudan between June and October last year affected about 270,000 people and damaged more than 36,000 homes, according to figures cited by the UN.

Israeli attack on Sudanese factory

Israel Conducts Air Strike On Sudan Missile Base In 'Dry Run' For Iran Attack

Zero Hedge,

29 October, 2012

This past Wednesday, nobody reported that a squadron of 8 Israeli F-15 jets ropped 4 two-ton bombs on the giant Yarmouk missile factory on the outskirts of Sudan's capital Khartoum. 

Which is just as Israel wanted it. Because what otherwise would be a provocative incursion tantamount to war (if only Sudan wasn't a complete basket case of a country), was really nothing short of a dry-run for an Israeli attack on Iran. At least according to the Sunday Times.

 "A long-range Israeli bombing raid last week that was seen as a dry run for a forthcoming attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has destroyed an Iranian-run plant making rockets and ballistic missiles in Sudan.... The raid, in which two people died, triggered panic across the city. Witnesses said they heard a series of loud blasts followed by the sound of ammunition exploding. “It was a double impact — the explosion at the factory and then the ammunition flying into the neighbourhood,” said Abd-al Ghadir Mohammed, 31, a resident. "The ground shook. Some homes were badly damaged." 

And... nobody cares. 

Here we leave it up to readers to imagine the epic horror, deep revulsion that would greet news that Iran had conducted a pre-emptive strike against Israel by blowing up a missile factory in Turkey, killing two innocent people, just to make sure it can.

A visual summary of the attack:

This is what was left of the Somali factory after the Israeli self-appointed (because national borders are for chumps) punishment force was done with it:

And the full post-mortem of the operation that took place 4 days ago, via Voice of Russia:

The attack occurred in the early morning of October 24, when eight Israeli F-15I jets – four of them carrying two one-ton bombs, escorted by four fighters – struck a gigantic Yamrouk missile site. The evidence is that this strike is a general rehearsal before the Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

According to western defense sources, the 2,400-mile return flight took the Israelis four hours, with the jets flying south along the Red Sea. The planes entered the Sudanese air space from the east to avoid Egypt’s missile defenses.

The anti-Iranian operation kicked off two years ago when Mossad agents murdered a Palestinian businessman and a HAMAS highflyer, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, in a Dubai hotel suit, retrieving a suitcase with a military agreement between Iran and Sudan, wherein Khartoum offered Tehran its military sites to make weapons.

The Yamrouk facility produced Shahab ballistic missiles, which were then to be delivered to HAMAS rebels in the Gaza strip and other Middle Eastern regions.

In other words: add the Israeli invasion of Iran on the "To Do" list, alongside Grexit, the official Spanish bailout request, the Chinese Congress, the Japan-China territorial re-escalation, sliding down the Fiscal Cliff, and the debt ceiling breach, as soon as possible after the November 6 election.

And all that, of course, assuming Sky Net does not finally take over tomorrow when only robots will be left trading.

Israel bomba Sudanese arms factory

Sudan accuses Israel of bombing weapons factory, threatens to retaliate

Israel was behind the bombing of a military factory that killed two people, claims Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. Now, the Arab North African state is threatening to respond in kind.

RT,

24 October, 2012

"We think Israel did the bombing," Osman told a news conference, adding that Sudan reserves “the right to react at a place and time we choose." He also told reporters that his government may take the issue up with the United Nations Security Council.

The minister said four planes were involved in the attack at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum, and claimed evidence recovered at the scene points to Israel’s involvement.

The Yarmouk complex was built in 1996, and is one of two known state-owned weapons manufacturing facilities in the Sudanese capital.

Residents from the area told local newspapers that they saw planes flying overhead just before the explosion. The blast blew roofs off houses, shattered windows and set nearby trees ablaze. Several people suffered from smoke exposure.

Thick smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters fought the blaze for hours.

It's not the first time Sudanese officials have blamed such an incident on Israel.

One person was killed when a car blew up on the country's Red Sea coast in May, about a year after Sudan blamed Israel for an air strike on a vehicle in the same area. Witnesses to the May incident said they heard a big blast that set the car ablaze and left two holes in the ground.

In January 2009, foreign aircraft struck a truck convoy reportedly laden with weapons in the country’s east, killing dozens. The shipment was rumored to be headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, though Sudanese parliamentarians denied the claims.

Osman told the news conference that his country was certain the previous attacks were ordered by the Israeli government. “The main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any development there and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty,” he said.

Israel, as is its policy, has neither admitted nor denied carrying out the attack.

Khartoum is seeking the removal of United States sanctions imposed in 1997 over support for international terrorism, its human rights record and other concerns.

In 1998, US cruise missiles bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory suspected of links to al-Qaeda in the wake of the terrorist group's bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

Water wars

Yet another conflict in the offing – for water

STRATFOR: Egypt Is Prepared To Bomb All Ethiopia's Nile Dams And Water Facilities

In 2010 Egypt discussed taking military action in cooperation with Sudan against Ethiopia to protect their stake in Nile River, according to internal emails from the U.S. private-security firm Stratfor.

Business Insider,

13 October, 2012

Egypt and Sudan get 90 percent of the river’s water under colonial-era accords while upstream countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia have been clamoring for a new deal during more than a decade of talks.

The Nile flows south to north, making it one of only a handful of rivers in the world to do so and one of only two in Africa.

So, rather than Cairo sitting at the mouth of the massive water supply, it sits dead last—subject to all the whims and fancies of each upstream nation. With several factional governments upstream and the premium on fresh water, diplomacy only goes so far.

A dispatch from May 26, 2010, that cited information from a Egyptian diplomatic source points to the country's frustration:

Sudanese president Umar al-Bashir has agreed to allow the Egyptians to build an a small airbase in Kusti to accommodate Egyptian commandos who might be sent to Ethiopia to destroy water facilities on the Blue Nile... It will be their option if everything else fails

The Blue Nile, which begins in Ethiopia, contributes about 85 percent of the flow that passes through Egypt to the Mediterranean.

Egypt's Aswan Dam

Ethiopia became an even bigger threat a month after the Egyptian Revolution toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 when they announced new details about the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

In April of this year Bradley Hope of the The National reported that construction had begun and that the massive project "could destabilize Egypt in a way that would make the last year of political upheaval look minuscule."

"It would lead to political, economic and social instability,"  Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, Egypt's minister of water and irrigation until early last year, told Hope. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."

Ethiopia is also currently struggling to fund the dam, which would need foreign aid to be completed. Egypt and Sudan have lobbied foreign donors to refrain from funding the project while they try to find a diplomatic solution to the increasingly dire water situation.

 

A dispatch from June 1, 2010, that cited a "high-level Egyptian security/intel source, in regular direct contact with Mubarak and [then-intelligence head Omar] Suleiman" said:

The only country that is not cooperating is Ethiopia. We are continuing to talk to them, using the diplomatic approach. Yes, we are discussing military cooperation with Sudan. ... If it comes to a crisis, we will send a jet to bomb the dam and come back in one day, simple as that. Or we can send our special forces in to block/sabotage the dam... Look back to an operation Egypt did in the mid-late 1970s, i think 1976, when Ethiopia was trying to build a large dam. We blew up the equipment while it was traveling by sea to Ethiopia.

A dispatch from July 29, 2010, that cited the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon said that Egypt and leaders of the soon-to-be independent southern region of Sudan "agreed on developing strategic relations between their two countries," including Egypt training the South Sudan military, and noted that "the horizons for Egyptian-southern Sudanese cooperation are limitless since the south needs everything."

In 1979 Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s second president, said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water."

The government of current Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi described the Stratfor emails as hearsay “designed to disturb Egyptian-Ethiopian relations.”

WikiLeaks has published 53,860 out of what it says is a cache of 5 million internal Stratfor emails (dated between July 2004 and December 2011) obtained by the hacker collective Anonymous around Christmas. Check out our coverage here.