Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Abductions and Bombers


Rebels in Darfur abducted an estimated 50 peacekeepers from the United Nations, says Voice of America, on February 20th 2012. The rebels, part of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said that the abduction happened because the UN representatives entered into the rebel camp without permission, which obviously they did not appreciate. There was a suspicion that some there were Sudanese Agents within the group as well, which raised the awareness of the rebels. Now, onto the overhead bombings that have been occurring in the Sudan area, Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times said he was with a family in the mountains of Sudan when he heard the sound of an Antonov Bomber going overhead. When Kristof heard the noise he didn’t no what to do at the moment, but the family was already in motion. The Nuba people have been hiding in caves in the Nuba Mountains ever since the bombing started. The Sudan Government has been trying very hard to cut off supply lines to the Nuba Mountains, in an effort to get rid of all the remaining families hiding in the mountains. Kristof was also in a village called Dar, and heard first hand how dedicated these rebels are to bring down the regime of Omar Bashir. While in the village of Dar, Kristof was talking to General Nimeri Morat, of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), who said “We will fight the Omar Bashir regime until we die…then our children will fight.” I see a long, long rebellion ahead for the South Sudanese.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Food shortage and Chinese workers


Today on Vatican Radio, it was reported that due to the amount of people returning to South Sudan, internal security and border security, South Sudan would run out of food in the next year. UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has released a statement that says that South Sudan will be producing half of what they need in food for the year 2012. It is estimated that between, 420,000 and 500,000 metric tons will be produced. Which to me sounds like a lot but evidentially it is not a lot at all. In other news (I feel like a news anchor), Newsday said that the 29 Chinese workers that were abducted by Sudanese were released yesterday (February 8th, 2012) and taken by Red Cross to Kenya. The Chinese workers were attacked while working on January 29th, 2012. It is reported that 17 had managed to escape and one body was identified as one of the workers, was found dead.