South Sudan - The African Mirror

Aug

2020

South Sudan central bank runs out of foreign exchange reserves

DENIS DUMO South Sudan, battered by years of conflict and corruption, has run out of foreign exchange reserves and can no longer stop the pound's depreciation, a senior central bank official in the oil-producing has revealed. Daniel Kech Pouch, the bank's second deputy governor, told a news conference that the country's oil revenues had dropped, hitting its foreign exchange reserves. South Sudan gets almost all of its revenue from crude oil, but current output, at around 180,000 barrels per day, has plummeted from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the outbreak of conflict in 2013, according to official figures. "It…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

South Sudan death toll in disarmament fighting rises to 148

NEWS

DENIS DUMO THE death toll in South Sudan's Warrap State has risen to 148 following fighting this past weekend during a disarmament exercise, a local government official said on Friday, and the U.N. has deployed forces to maintain calm in the region. Heavy clashes erupted over a two-day period between armed civilians and government forces carrying out a disarmament project after some armed youths in the Greater Tonj area started engaging the security forces. It is still unclear what set off the clashes. Tonj East County Executive Director Makuei Mabior Dhuol told Reuters that the death toll jumped due to…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

At least 81 people killed as South Sudan’s disarmament erupts in violence

NEWS

AT least 81 people have been killed in the South Sudan region of Warrap State following heavy fighting between armed civilians and government forces carrying out a disarmament exercise, the military's spokesman said on Tuesday. Lul Ruai Koang told Reuters the two-day clashes erupted over the weekend after some armed youths in the Greater Tonj area started engaging the security forces. It was not immediately clear what sparked the fight, he said, adding that an investigation has been started. "Among the dead are 55 members of the security forces and 26 civilians. Another 31 servicemen were also wounded," Koang said,…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Prominent South Sudan critic says government sent hit squad for him; Juba denies

NEWS

ARSHAD MOHAMMED and JULIO -CESAR CHAVEZ A prominent South Sudanese economist fled to the United States on Thursday and accused South Sudan's President Salva Kiir of ordering a hit squad to kill or kidnap him in Kenya, an allegation immediately denied by the Juba government. Peter Biar Ajak landed at Dulles Airport outside Washington with his wife and three small children after travelling from Nairobi. He told Reuters that top South Sudanese officials whom he declined to identify had warned him that Kiir had ordered a team to abduct or murder him in the Kenyan capital. Ajak said SUVs with…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

From bombs, bullets to hoops

SPORT

BOITUMELO RANTAO THE odds of survival in a country devastated by civil war are slim. The odds of making it overseas, away from a civil war, are even slimmer. The odds of making it into the best basketball league in the world as a native of South Sudan? Near impossible. But defying the odds is what turns good teams into great ones. That is the inspirational story of Manute Bol, who survived the bombs and bullets of a war in South Sudan and made it into the US National Basketball Association (NBA), the biggest and richest league in the sport.…