News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

UN warns of risk of mass atrocities in South Sudan

Posted: 16 Nov 2016 10:24 PM PST

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that there has been a sharp rise in hate speech and ethnic incitement in South Sudan.

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United Nations - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns that there is a real risk of mass atrocities being committed in South Sudan, following a sharp rise in hate speech and ethnic incitement.

In a report to the Security Council released on Wednesday, Ban said that UN peacekeepers in South Sudan lack the manpower and capability to stop mass atrocities should they occur.

"There is a very real risk of mass atrocities being committed in South Sudan, in particular following the sharp rise in hate speech and ethnic incitement in recent weeks," the report states.

"While the secretariat will continue to make every effort to implement the mandated task of protecting civilians through the use of 'all necessary means,' it must be clearly understood that United Nations peacekeeping operations do not have the appropriate reach, manpower or capabilities to stop mass atrocities."

In the report, Ban repeated earlier calls on the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the country which he said is "inundated with weaponry."

He also said that government restrictions on the peacekeepers' movements have led to mission paralysis and are undermining humanitarian operations in the world's youngest nation.

South Sudan has been riven by ethnic violence since shortly after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

In 2013, the country was plunged into civil war broke when government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled rebels led by his former vice president Machar, who is a Nuer. A peace agreement was signed in August 2015, but fighting continues. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million displaced.

Ban's report recommended that the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force first deployed in 2011 be renewed for another year.

AP

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Mauritanians support execution of ‘infidel’ blogger

Posted: 16 Nov 2016 06:36 AM PST

Hundreds of Mauritanians are supporting the execution of a blogger accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

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Johannesburg - Hundreds of Mauritanians are supporting the execution of a blogger accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

On Tuesday, protesters in Nouakchott called for blogger Cheikh Ould Mohamed Ould Mkheitir to be put to death as Mauritania’s high court considered whether the death penalty should be carried out.

The protests were in response to a call by Muslim leaders who on Sunday declared a “fatwa” that Mkheitir be put to death, and who also organised Tuesday’s demonstration, AFP reported.

Mkheitir was initially sentenced to death for apostasy in 2014 over a blog post deemed insulting to the prophet. Though his crime was downgraded by an appeal court, the accompanying death sentence was not lifted.

The allegedly blasphemous blog post had also attacked “an iniquitous social order” in Mauritania, with an underclass descended from slaves that was “marginalised and discriminated against from birth”.

Modern-day slavery under a hereditary system of servitude forces members of the “slave” caste to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants, despite an official ban.

Many Mauritanians live below the poverty line while there is huge disparity between the Arabised moorish elites and the country’s black population.

A defence lawyer subsequently told AFP the court had examined Mkheitir’s case and would deliver its verdict on December 20.

African News Agency

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