Tag: South Sudan

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What to read on South Sudan

South Sudan is in crisis. What’s going on?

Which sentence best describes your current level of knowledge?

I’m not sure where South Sudan is. Here’s a handy map. Now you do! Start here.

 

 

 

 

 

I follow African politics generally, but don’t know much about South Sudan.
Think Africa Press has a good round-up of experts to get you going.

I’ve been following South Sudan for a while now, and am looking for real-time updates on the current crisis.
Then you probably already know this, but Twitter is likely the best source of up-to-date (if not always fact-checked) news. #SouthSudan is a good starting point. Check out the Sudd Institute news and @SuddInstitute, and this terrific list of tweeps compiled by Lesley Warner.

I’m an expert on South Sudan/I’m based in South Sudan. 
Please send me your recommendations.

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Ivory trade in the DRC

Jeffrey Gettleman of the NYT investigates a growing illicit trade in the DRC — not diamonds, gold, or minerals, but ivory. Evidence suggests that military forces in the area, including national armies from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan, and rebel groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army, have been implicated in the illegal and deadly trade. As much as 70% of all ivory is headed to China. Excerpt below, full article here.

Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups, including the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Shabab and Darfur’s janjaweed, are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons and sustain their mayhem. Organized crime syndicates are linking up with them to move the ivory around the world, exploiting turbulent states, porous borders and corrupt officials from sub-Saharan Africa to China, law enforcement officials say.

But it is not just outlaws cashing in. Members of some of the African armies that the American government trains and supports with millions of taxpayer dollars — like the Ugandan military, the Congolese Army and newly independent South Sudan’s military — have been implicated in poaching elephants and dealing in ivory.

Video: The Ivory Wars