"South Sudan’s controversial security legislation allowing the arrest of people without warrants
has become law even though the president has not signed it,
parliament’s spokesperson said Thursday.
Yasmin Sooka, chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said Thursday that the new law will give security agencies powers to conduct
“more arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances.”
South Sudan is due to hold its first election Dec. 22 under the transitional government created after the signing of a peace agreement in 2018 that ended a five-year civil war in which nearly 400,000 people died."
https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-security-bill-detentions-ad185b339601154dd3dc1c609c8baf05
____
"International guarantors of South Sudan's peace process said the transitional government's postponement of elections due in December was disappointing and showed its failure to implement a 2018 peace plan.
Last Friday, South Sudan President Salva Kiir's office announced an extension of the transitional period by two years and postponed elections for a second time following a delay in 2022."
___
"Nearly five million people are close to famine
as the country’s civil war passes the one-year mark. Aid officials say the warring parties – the army and the Rapid Support Forces –
are looting aid or blocking it from reaching areas where starvation is taking hold.
But ‘the world’s largest hunger crisis’ is drawing little global attention."
18 million people in Sudan – more than a third of the nation’s 49 million people – are facing “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognized hunger monitor. The IPC also estimates that of this group, nearly five million people are one step from famine
Our biggest challenge is the funding and lack of attention to Sudan,” said Chessa Latifi, senior program advisor in global health at relief organization Project HOPE.
“People are so involved in Ukraine and so involved in Gaza
that there is no space for anyone to think, to be open to listen and hear about Sudan.”
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/sudan-politics-hunger-aid/
Plus, corporate rule and politics focuses on bigot stunts, antics, publicity, manipulation, and religion, far right fascism co opts Religion or feeds from it.
____
https://www.cfr.org/article/crisis-sudan-war-famine-and-failing-global-response
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"US announces $424m in Sudan aid amid pleas to stop ‘senseless’ war
American envoy to UN urges humanitarian pause and says international community ‘cannot simply look away’ "
"Describing the war in Sudan as horrific and shaming for the whole world, she said it was now necessary
“to compel, insist and demand that the warring parties agree a humanitarian pause to allow aid to flow and for citizens to flee”.
Katy Crosby from the NGO Mercy Corps expressed deep disappointment that a two-hour UN meeting had skirted around many of the fundamental issues.
She said:
“Many of the exact same expressions of concern and calls for more aid
to be allowed into Sudan
were expressed in almost the exact same room
here in New York at a high-level meeting here a year ago.”
_____
" Call out the violence by the RSF in Darfur for what it is: ethnic cleansing.
This reality cannot be disputed.
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, under secretary-general and special adviser to the secretary-general on the prevention of genocide, has warned that
“the situation today bears all the marks of risk of genocide, with strong allegations that this crime has already been committed”.
"This is a critical time for global leadership to live up to our commitments to protect vulnerable populations from destruction. We are watching the Janjaweed, the murderous militia now restyled as the RSF, trying to finish what it began 20 years ago"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/25/sudan-united-nations-intervention-uk-el-fasher
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"They attacked us. They displaced us’: grieving South Sudanese confront Swedish oil giant over their days of slaughter "
"In Sweden’s largest-ever trial, Ian Lundin, a Swede, and Alex Schneiter, who is Swiss, stand accused of asking Sudan’s government to make its army and allied militia responsible for security at one of Lundin Oil’s exploration fields. This led to aerial bombings, civilian killings and the burning of entire villages, according to the prosecution"
___
Oil-rich Abyei is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan
____
"Libyan authorities have said they will investigate allegations of wholesale mismanagement in the country’s National Oil Corporation, with officials telling the Guardian rampant smuggling is helping to fuel the civil war in Sudan."
"Sources say the majority of the imported fuel comes from Russia, via third parties in Turkey, and is illicitly sold on to Europe at a large profit by smugglers, leaving ordinary Libyans with often hours-long queues for petrol."
____
'The rupture of a crucial oil pipeline in Sudan might be the final straw. Oil is the glue that holds South Sudan together, with its export accounting for nearly 90% of government revenue. The economy is in freefall."
____
Sudan conflict: Khartoum landmarks in flames as battles rage across country
Fire engulfs Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company tower amid clashes around army headquarters in capital while fighting also reported in city of El-Obeid
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/18/sudan-fighting-conflict-landmarks-destroyed-battles
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"South Sudan is divided by the spoils of oil, not ethnicity"
Khalid Mustafa Medani
"South Sudan is more dependent on oil than any other oil-exporting country in the world.
Between 2005 and 2011, oil exports amounted to $9.5bn (£5.8bn) and accounted for 98% of total state revenues. But rather than utilising this revenue to invest in infrastructure and public services to improve livelihoods, the government financed a military and security apparatus, itself factionalised along ethnic lines.
Since independence in 2011, for example, South Sudan has allocated 38% of oil revenue to the military and security services, and only 10% to infrastructure and 7% to education.
Not only has the country seen agricultural productivity decline since the end of the civil war in 2003, it now imports the bulk of its food."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/14/south-sudan-divided-oil-ethnicity-violence
____
"The Canadian firm Arakis bought the Chevron concession in the Muglad basin, north of Bentiu, and in March 1997 formed a consortium, the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), and the publicly owned Sudan National Petroleum Corporation (Sudapet).[1] In 1998 another Canadian firm, Talisman Energy, purchased the share of Arakis and then, under pressure from international nongovernmental organizations (which were opposed to the Islamist regime in Khartoum), sold it to a state-owned Indian oil company in 2003.[1] Other companies that also invested in concessions included the Qatar-based Gulf Petroleum and the French oil company Total.[1] The Swedish company Lundin Oil and the Austrian firm OMV were also involved, but both withdrew from the country because of deteriorating security conditions.[1]
Prior to 2005, the only concession producing petroleum was GNPOC.[1] However, many other fields were under development, such as the concession being developed by the consortium led by CNPC, PETRONAS, Sudapet, Sinopec, and Cairo-based Tri-Ocean Energy.[1] In 2003 and 2004, the consortium began construction of a new export pipeline and export terminal, as well as in-field production and transportation facilities.[1] South Sudan’s national oil company, Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet), was also involved in allocating licenses.[1]
In 2005 Sudan established the National Petroleum Commission to improve the development of the country’s oil resources.[1] The commission allocates new oil contracts and ensures equal sharing of oil revenues between the national government in Khartoum and the Government of South Sudan (GOSS).[1] It also resolved duplicate oil contract issues in which the GOSS allocated blocks that overlapped the contracts previously granted by the national government in Khartoum.[1]
Intensive exploration by GNPOC resulted in known reserves of 800 million barrels in 2004.[1] At that time, however, studies suggested that production might eventually increase to more than 4 billion barrels, with recovery rates of 30–35 percent, and generate total oil income of about US$30 billion.[1] Exploration was expected to continue not only in the South, but also in the North near Dongola, the East around Port Sudan, the West, and also offshore.[1] As of 2009, proven oil reserves increased to 5 billion barrels, and there were proven natural gas reserves of 3 trillion cubic feet, although there was no production of natural gas by early 2011.[1] The majority of the reserves were in South Sudan.[1]
Additional refining capacity became essential as oil production increased.[1] A US$600 million refinery at Al-Jayli, north of Khartoum, came online in mid-2000 with a capacity of around 60,000 b/d, which allowed Sudan to become self-sufficient in refined products.[1] The export pipeline, which passed close to it, provided the resources for the refinery, which also produces a small surplus of refined goods, especially benzine, for export.[1]
In addition to the refineries at Al-Jayli and Port Sudan, there are also some smaller refineries.[1] They include Al-Obeid, with a capacity of 15,000 b/d, Abu Jabrah, with a capacity of about 2,000 b/d, and a topping plant built by Concorp with a capacity of 5,000 b/d.[1]
Refining capacity increased in July 2006 as CNPC completed the expansion of the Al-Jayli refinery north of Khartoum to 100,000 b/d.[1] An Indian energy company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), had a contract to increase the capacity of the 40-year-old Port Sudan refinery from 21,000 b/d to 70,000 b/d, while PETRONAS was awarded a $1 billion joint venture with the government to build a second 100,000 b/d refinery in Port Sudan to process the new Dar Blend crude from its Melut concession in southeastern Sudan.[1] This project had been postponed several times by 2010, however, and its status is unknown.[1] Among other developments, Malaysia’s Peremba has begun construction of a marine export terminal, with a capacity of 2 million b/d, known as the Melut Basin Oil Development Project.[1]
Domestic production of petroleum was about 480,000 b/d in 2008, and consumption was approximately 86,000 b/d, with the remaining 394,000 b/d exported to Asian markets, the majority to China, Japan, and Indonesia.[1] Most of the oil was exported as crude, although some refined products were also exported.[1] Sudanese Nile Blend oil is a medium, sweet crude, with low sulphur and metal content.[1] It is sold at a discount to the Indonesian blend, Minas, the medium-sweet benchmark in Asia.[1] Dar Blend is also exported to Asian markets, but its heavy, sour quality causes it to trade at a discount, often severe, to Minas crude.[1] There has been a continuing trend of declining output of Nile Blend oil and increasing output of the less valuable Dar Blend, although total output remains relatively steady.[1] The shift from Nile to Dar, however, means that a larger share of Sudan’s oil is being produced in the South, about 78 percent.[1]
Sudan’s minister for energy and mining indicated in May 2010 that there might be modest output increases over the next several years.[1] He also indicated, however, that the recoverable reserves in the existing fields, using current technology, were only about 1.6 billion barrels, less than a decade of production at current output rates, and that production at those fields would only be a quarter of their current level by 2019.[1] He was confident, however, that new recovery technology could increase the amount recoverable from the fields and that new fields would be discovered.[1] He also was confident that production of natural gas would occur by that time.[1]
Satellite photographs were available in 2011 that provided evidence of oil exploration taking place in North Darfur, although the consortium of Arab companies holding the concession had not confirmed the exploration or indicated whether oil was discovered there.[1] This region has geological connections to the oil-producing regions in southeastern Libya.[1]
In May 2006, Sudan was invited to become a voting member of OPEC.[1] The country had had observer status since 1999 and was now qualified to join OPEC according to conditions set by the organization, although as of 2011 it had not yet become a member"
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