World Food Programme South Sudan Country Director, Matthew Hollingworth. Photo by Awan Achiek/Sudans Post

JUBA – South Sudan’s cereal production in 2020 has increased by 874,400 metric tons, seven percent higher than 818,500 metric tons in 2019 amid instability, according to a new United Nations report released today.

The UN attributed the increase in cereal production to favorable rains.

“The marginal gains in cereal production show that where there is peace and stability, the people of South Sudan are able to turn the page on hunger,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Representative and Country Director in South Sudan.

Hollingworth said the combined impacts of recurring conflict and huge floods in the three states severely hampered agriculture.

“But in a country still battered by years of war and the ravages of climate change, modest improvements are far from enough to end food insecurity, which is the highest ever. Disrupted livelihoods, heavy losses in livestock and other assets, and high food prices are pushing the average family deeper into poverty and hunger,” he added.

“This growth is encouraging, but lasting peace is the precondition to enable communities to benefit from South Sudan fertile soils produce their own food and exit from humanitarian aid,” said Meshack Malo, FAO Representative in South Sudan.

Malo added that “Our priority is to unleash South Sudan’s potential, increase crop production, and to allow communities to contribute to the expansion of the planted areas.”

Food security is a huge challenge to 7.2 million people, 60 percent of South Sudan’s population.

Violence and conflict, competition among groups over resources such as farmland and water, as well as new protracted displacements due to violence and floods both destroyed assets and eroded communities’ resilience.

The UN report stated that of the country’s ten states, only Western Equatoria produced enough cereal for FAO and WFP to purchase locally to feed the hungry in the other nine states.

Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile has the highest cereal deficit levels in the country and therefore account for nearly 50 percent of all food-insecure people. - Sudans Post

Telkom Kenya customers will now be able to make payments on the eCitizen platform using T-kash. 

The financial services platform has been integrated into the government digital services platform to enable T-kash customers pay for National and County Government Services.

This includes services offered by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Business Registration Service, and Immigration Services. 

The list also includes bundled services under the Civil Registration Department, Office of the Attorney General, Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), National Construction Authority, Kenya Film Commission, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) and the Ministries of Land and Mining. 

Through T-kash, entrepreneurs in Mombasa, Nyeri and Kisumu Counties can also pay for their single business permits, trade licenses and e-construction permits – a boon to Kenya’s Ease of Doing Business Program that seeks to, among other actions, further automate service delivery. 

To pay using T-kash on eCitizen, customers will just need to follow the normal Login processes to access the portal, choose the “Telkom T-kash” option, and will be guided by the payment instructions, as indicated, for the service. 

Telkom’s CEO, Mugo KIBATI says this move speaks to one of the firm’s commitments to better position its infrastructure asset base and services, to drive digital transformation within the Consumer, SME, Corporate and Public sectors, to enable them to become smart entities.

“This strategic partnership will help broaden the eCitizen’s revenue collection options, and improve services to Kenyans, as well as cement our ambition to be the technology partner of choice to our consumers, private and public sector clients.” 

Financial services, partnerships, and digitization form part of Telkom’s focus areas. In this strategic direction, Telkom seeks to enrich its financial services offering in response to the evolving digital lifestyle of the consumer, where convenience and simplicity are paramount. 

Recently, the company, through its digital services platform, T-kash, announced its partnership with the Ministry of ICT’s National Youth Council of Kenya (NYCK), to co-create FURSA, an e-wallet that will open up a portfolio of financial opportunities to the youth in Kenya and more so at the grassroots levels. The objective is to increase the youth’s resilience in the midst of physical and infrastructural barriers that obstruct their access to financial services and products. telkom.co.ke ABC

Photo Radio Tamazuj

The Uganda Police are investigating the death of the former Deputy Governor of Yei River State in South Sudan as a suspected assassination, the Ugandan Monitor newspaper reported yesterday.

The South Sudan National Movement for Change/Army (SSNMC/A) Chief of General Staff Brig. Gen. Abraham Wani Yoane Bondo was stabbed at his rented home in Nansana, Wakiso District, last Tuesday, and died in hospital two days later. 
 
Investigations indicate that Brig. Gen. Wani’s killers, who raided his home in the night, were heard by neighbors speaking Arabic. 

Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire said political motive is part of the line of investigation they are studying. 

“Investigators recorded statements that they heard killers speak Arabic and another dialect commonly used for communication in South Sudan. We have expanded the investigations beyond aggravated robbery,” Mr. Owoyesigyire said yesterday. 

The killers stole the deceased’s television set and mobile phone.
Brig. Gen. Wani had earlier told authorities in Uganda that he survived two assassinations in South Sudan, prompting him to flee into exile.

In September 2016, while in Uganda as a refugee, he declared that he had switched to Vice President Riek Machar’s side, and accused President Salva Kiir’s government of extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses. 

Brig. Gen. Wani claimed that in the same year, he started receiving threats. A group of unidentified South Sudanese visited a home he rented for his family in Nansana, Wakiso, searching for him. His daughter told police then that her mother lied to them that he was away.
  
In 2019, he claimed assassins had been sent to kill him at Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Camp. 

The Office of the Prime Minister in Uganda and United Nations agencies were informed about the allegations, which were investigated but no evidence was obtained. 

In March, he traveled to Nansana to visit his children and stayed there until he was killed. 

Mr. Moses Nsubuga, the area chairman, said the deceased’s daughter told him that the killers were armed with sharp objects.

“She said the killers spoke to her father in their dialect before they hacked him. She said they fled with a few items,” Mr. Nsubuga said. He said they tried to talk to the victim to find out whether he knew the attackers but in vain. 

 “He couldn’t talk. We took him to Namungoona hospital for treatment,” he said. 

Brig. Gen. Wani was later referred to IHK at Namuwongo, where he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday. 

In 2015, Wani was appointed Deputy Governor for Yei River State following the creation of the 32 states. However, in August 2016, he defected to the main opposition faction, the SPLM-IO led by Dr. Riek Machar accusing the government of gross human rights violations in areas around Central Equatoria State.

Moreover, Brig. Gen. Wani abandoned SPLM-IO and joined the South Sudan National Movement for Change of Joseph Bakasoro Bokosoro who serves as the national Labor minister. - Radio Tamazuj