S.Sudan president says planned 2015 election to be delayed
Mon May 12, 2014 2:26pm GMT
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* Kiir says voting could be put off until 2018
* Government, rebels trade blame for truce violations
* Ceasefire took effect Saturday in Africa's newest state
By Andrew Green
JUBA, May 12 (Reuters) - South Sudan will postpone a presidential election
set for 2015 as the country's warring factions will need time to reconcile,
President Salva Kiir said, with a vote possibly taking place as late as
2018.
South Sudan's conflict threatens to tear apart a nation that only became
independent from Sudan in 2011 and has curbed its lifeblood oil production.
Ethnic divisions have been a significant driver of the violence, which pits
Kiir's Dinka people against the Nuer of his former deputy Riek Machar.
Kiir and Machar, whom the president sacked in July 2013, signed a new
ceasefire pact in Ethiopia on Friday and pledged to hold further talks about
forming an interim government to end nearly five months of bloodshed.
That plan, however, has got off to a shaky start with both sides swiftly
accusing each other of violating the truce.
"Elections will not be held in 2015, because reconciliation between the
people will have to take time," Kiir said at Juba airport late on Sunday.
"The election (timetable) has to be extended for two or three years, so this
interim government would remain in power and elections can be held in 2017
or 2018."
Kiir said he would have preferred elections to be held in 2015 "so that
these can come back and contest" it.
South Sudan's army and rebel forces traded blame on Sunday for breaches of
the ceasefire hours after it took effect - fighting that will frustrate
international mediators who had pressured both sides to stop the
ethnically-fuelled conflict.
The rebels on Monday said government soldiers had taken control of Bentiu,
capital of the oil-rich Unity state and the site of an ethnic massacre that
in April raised fears of the conflict spiralling into genocide.
Rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said government troops carried out "extensive
shelling" of villages around Bentiu and accused Kiir of "acting with
impunity".
Colonel Philip Aguer, spokesman for government forces, said there had been
no fighting in South Sudan on Monday.
The United Nations has warned the bloodshed could descend into a full-blown
genocide and trigger a famine since the violence has prevented subsistence
farmers from planting crops in some of the country's most fertile regions.
South Sudan's economy has been hit hard by the violence, with vital oil
output down by a third and cash for development and many other basic
services diverted to fund the war effort.
IGAD, the regional body mediating the talks, has called on both sides to
stop fighting so aid convoys can reach some remote areas ahead of the rainy
season, which renders much of the Texas-sized country inaccessible by road.
The United States and European Union states, which have been pressing hard
for a deal, welcomed Friday's agreement and called on both leaders to issue
immediate orders for calm.
Western powers were instrumental in South Sudan gaining independence and
trumpeted its creation as a policy success. (Writing by Drazen Jorgic;
Editing by James Macharia and Mark Heinrich)
Car bomb kills at least 12 people in Somalia - police
Mon May 12, 2014 4:15pm GMT
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MOGADISHU May 12 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least 12 people, including
Somali soldiers and civilians, on Monday in a city that was once a
stronghold of al Qaeda-linked rebels, police said.
Baidoa - about 250 km (150 miles) southwest of Mogadishu - was the second
most important city for Al Shabaab insurgents after the port of Kismayu,
before they were routed by Ethiopian troops in 2012.
"A car bomb killed 12 people including government forces and residents,"
Captain Nur Aden, a police officer, told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.
"His cars and others which were also parked there were destroyed. Some of
his bodyguards were seriously injured. Most of the people who died were
residents who were in the cafe," Aden told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.
There was no immediate claim for the attack. Al Shabaab could not be reached
for comment.
"I have counted 12 people (dead) including five of my colleagues," Mohamed
Hussein, a worker at the bank, told Reuters by telephone.
"I see destroyed cars and dead people lying in front of me. I believe the
explosion was targeted at government officials and forces who were passing
there by car."
The capital Mogadishu has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks in
the past few months, claimed by al Shabaab, which has waged a sustained
guerrilla campaign even after being pushed out of the city in mid-2011.
Somalia's government is struggling to impose any sense of order, more than
two decades after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre tipped the country
into chaos.
Western nations involved in Somalia worry it could sink back into chaos and
provide a launch pad for Islamist militancy. (Reporting by Abdi Sheikh;
Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)