This was somewhat predictable. The key question is whether or not the security council will make good on its promise to punish those who violate the agreement, “South Sudan rebels on Sunday accused the army of violating a ceasefire just hours after it came into effect, by bombarding their positions along the White Nile river. ‘A military convoy — two barges, seven gunboats — has been moving from Bor to Panijar. Whenever they see our positions on the banks, they shell,’ said rebel spokesman Dickson Gatluak. ‘The cessation of hostilities started at midnight on Saturday but the government has broken it. They are not committed to it,’ he added. The spokesman added that the rebels would on Monday report the situation to the regional eight-nation IGAD bloc which helped broker the pact. The army immediately denied the rebel claims.” (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Fagqbt)

Not out of the woods, yet….”Health officials in Sierra Leone on Sunday confirmed an Ebola death less than a week after the country’s last known patient was discharged from a hospital. Samples from the body of a 67-year-old woman who died recently in Kambia district in the country’s north came back positive for the deadly disease, said chief medical officer Dr. Brima Kargbo. Last Monday, the last known Ebola patient was released from a hospital in Sierra Leone, a milestone that allowed the West African nation to begin a 42-day countdown toward being declared free of Ebola transmission.” (AP http://yhoo.it/1VpyCal)

Africa

Central African Republic’s constitutional court has confirmed the exclusion of past members of a transitional government from running for office in presidential and parliamentary elections due in October. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Vpyjwf)

Nigeria’s Islamic extremist rebels Boko Haram are trying to extend their violent campaign across the country including Lagos, the country largest city, an intelligence official said Sunday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1MWuFa9)

Spanish authorities have arrested a American man on charges of enslavement and diamond pillaging during Sierra Leone’s civil war, a victims’ association said on Saturday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1idcaD2)

Ghana faced down the first major challenge to an IMF austerity programme on Monday when doctors suspended a three-week strike but a bigger test of President John Mahama’s commitment will come next year as he fights for reelection. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1idcthc)

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is to make a rare long-distance visit to China, the foreign ministry said Sunday, despite an International Criminal Court indictment for alleged war crimes in Darfur. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1VpyyHB)

A government-allied militia has agreed to leave a northern Mali town it occupied earlier this month following clashes with Tuareg separatists, a move praised by the country’s United Nations peacekeeping mission as helpful for preserving a fragile peace accord. (VOA http://bit.ly/1FahHPN)

Infighting and clan warfare threaten to undo the Mali peace process. (Reuters http://reut.rs/1LEqgHw)

MENA

An Egyptian court sentenced three Al Jazeera TV journalists to three years in prison on Saturday for operating without a press license and broadcasting material harmful to Egypt, a case that has stirred an international outcry. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1Vpyisd)

Yemen’s warring factions on Sunday braced for a key battle in a central province, where victory could allow pro-government forces to move rapidly north into the heartland of the country’s Shiite rebels. (AP http://yhoo.it/1FagqIz)

Airstrikes by a Saudi-led military coalition killed at least 13 civilians working early Sunday at a water plant in northern Yemen, the plant’s owner said. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1LEqlLb)

At least 10 people have been killed and around 80 of the 259 injured remain is hospital in Saudi Arabia where a fire broke out at a residential complex housing employees of oil giant Saudi Aramco, authorities said. (ABC Australia http://ab.co/1LEqsq1)
Asia

Hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites paraded through Nepal’s capital Sunday to demand that rights for sexual minorities be included in the country’s new constitution that is being finalized. (AP http://yhoo.it/1NHNcZr)

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told voters Sunday to ignore intimidation and to cast their ballots without fear in the upcoming general election. (AP http://yhoo.it/1LMqfE4)

Police probing Thailand’s deadliest bombing raided a second location and widened their search for more suspects on Sunday after a foreigner was arrested and stacks of fake passports and bomb-making materials found at a Bangkok apartment block. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1FagpnQ)

China faces a “formidable task” to clean up its rivers and lakes and needs a fundamental change in attitudes to prioritize the environment over economic development at all cost, vice premier Wang Yang said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1FagtUM)

Traffic came to almost a halt at a busy intersection of Manila’s main highway on Sunday as thousands of members of a Christian group occupied the road for a third night in a row to protest alleged intrusion by the government in church affairs. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1VpyyHJ)

The Americas

A Guatemalan congressional committee on Saturday recommended that President Otto Perez be stripped of immunity from prosecution over his suspected involvement in a customs racket, paving the way for a full vote in Congress in the coming days. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Vpy1W5)

…and the rest

Germany may have witnessed violent anti-refugee protests this week — but the message from the country’s media and celebrities is a loud and determined welcome for people fleeing the horrors of war. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1idc2n2)

European Union ministers were summoned on Sunday to meet in two weeks’ time to seek urgent solutions to a migration crisis unprecedented in the bloc’s history, as the mounting death toll on land and sea forced governments to respond. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1VpyCav)

The European Union migrant crisis will eventually push the 28-nation bloc to adopt uniform rules for refugees and end a patchwork of norms that have exacerbated the emergency, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1NHNdfS)

People fleeing war and persecution must be welcomed into France, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday as Europe faces a mounting migrant crisis. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1NHNboj)

Opinion/Blogs

Visualizing the disturbing trend of aid workers under attack (Humanosphere http://bit.ly/1hqfYjR)

Europe Squabbles While Refugees Die (IPS http://bit.ly/1PFOced)

Is Mali’s Peace Deal Dead? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1PFPSoa)

The potential impact of a Chinese slowdown on Africa’s economies (An Africanist Perspective http://bit.ly/1Kwt36V)

The EU’s phoney war on people smugglers is costing the lives of desperate migrants (The Independent http://ind.pn/1Q2ag3A)

How small foundations can punch above their weight (Devex http://bit.ly/1LMrsLG)

Origins and Aftermath of Attacks in Kenya: Critical and Religious Perspectives (CIHA blog http://bit.ly/1JFCY9p)

Should War Crime Perpetrators Pursue PhDs? (Justice in Conflict http://bit.ly/1LMrseE)

Is climate change the culprit in Tropical Storm Erika? (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1KwskCv)

Will New Sri Lankan Government Prioritize Resettlement of War-Displaced? (IPS http://bit.ly/1MWuMTl)

Dick and Liz Cheney have displaced our book from the #1 spot. Don’t give them this satisfaction. We PROMISE ours is better → http://amzn.to/1LEq22S

Discussion

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NNA – A ceasefire aimed at ending a brutal civil war in South Sudan came into effect Saturday evening hours after fresh clashes between government forces and rebels, which sparked concern for a hard-won peace deal.

The truce brokered by the regional eight-nation IGAD bloc, along with the United Nations, African Union, China, Britain, Norway and the United States, came into effect at 2100 GMT (midnight in South Sudan’s capital Juba).

But it was unclear whether it would hold.

Earlier Saturday, South Sudan’s army and rebels accused each other of sparking fresh fighting in the past 24 hours in the north-east.

“Riek Machar’s rebels attacked Malakal yesterday (Friday),” army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer told a press conference, referring to the capital of Upper Nile state, at the gateway to the country’s last major oil fields.

Aguer said the rebels used mortars and machineguns and that one government soldier was wounded.

The “assault on Malakal resumed this (Saturday) morning,” he said, insisting the army had a right to respond in self-defence.

Rebel spokesman James Gatdet Dak denied his camp had fired first.

“That’s untrue, their forces attacked us near Malakal,” he told AFP.

“They wanted to seize the area before the ceasefire comes into effect,” he added.

“This is a serious violation of the terms of the peace agreement,” a rebel statement charged — an accusation echoed on the government side by information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei.

A peace deal signed by rebel leader Machar on August 17, but only signed by President Salva Kiir on Wednesday, gave a 72-hour deadline for a permanent cessation of 20 months of hostilities.

Aguer, the army spokesman, called on IGAD to establish a ceasefire monitoring mechanism “in all the counties”.

But IGAD spokesman Hailemichael Gebreselassie denied any knowledge of the latest clashes, saying: “We haven’t heard anything related to any incidents.”

– Peace deal a ‘humiliation’ –

South Sudan broke away from Sudan four years ago to become the world’s newest nation.

The civil war began in December 2013 when President Kiir accused Machar, his former deputy, of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the impoverished country along ethnic lines.

Faced with the threat of international sanctions, Kiir finally signed the peace deal this week but annexed a list of reservations that he said would have to be addressed for the deal to take hold.

Machar said the reservations cast “doubts” on the government’s commitment to peace.

The UN Security Council on Friday threatened sanctions against anyone who undermined the accord.

The agreement gives the rebels the post of first vice president, which means that Machar would likely return to the job from which he was sacked, an event that put the country on the path to war.

The 12-page list of government reservations on the peace deal says his return would spell “humiliation” and a “reward for rebellion”.

At least seven ceasefires have already been agreed and then shattered within days or even hours.

Over two million people have fled their homes in a conflict marked by ethnic killings, gang rapes and the use of child soldiers. Some 200,000 civilians are sheltering inside UN bases.–AFP

===================R.Z.

NNA – The UN Security Council on Friday called on South Sudan’s warring sides to immediately begin a ceasefire agreed as part of a new peace deal and threatened sanctions against those who undermine the accord.

Under the terms of the peace deal, the ceasefire is due to come into effect on Saturday, but President Salva Kiir has already ordered his troops to halt operations and remain in their barracks.

In a unanimous statement, the 15-member council called on the sides “to adhere to the permanent ceasefire immediately” as outlined in the agreement to end the 20-month conflict in South Sudan.

The council expressed “its readiness to consider appropriate measures” including “an arms embargo and additional targeted sanctions.”

Facing the threat of international sanctions, Kiir signed the deal on Wednesday but annexed a list of reservations that he said would have to be addressed for the deal to take hold in the world’s youngest nation.

Rebel leader Riek Machar had signed the deal a week earlier.

Fighting erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, unleashing a wave of killings that has split the country along ethnic lines.

At least seven ceasefires have already been agreed and then shattered within days or even hours.

The deal gives the rebels the post of first vice president, which means that Machar would likely return to the job from which he was sacked in July 2013, an event which put the country on the path to war later that year.

Tens of thousands of people are thought to have died in a war marked by ethnic killings, gang rapes and child soldier recruitment.

The council said that those responsible for human rights violations must face justice.

Some 2.2 million people have been driven from their homes in the conflict. About 200,000 terrified civilians are sheltering at UN bases.

The United States has presented a draft UN resolution imposing an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on individuals who block provisions of the peace accord.–AFP

===============R.Z.