South Sudan in Focus

Health officials are on high alert in South Sudan following the detection of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa. They say they are carrying out sequencing efforts to find out if the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is present in the country; South Sudan President Salva Kiir says his government is ready to resume negotiations with holdout rebel groups who refused to sign the 2018 peace deal; Senior clergymen with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Sudan are condemning a weekend incident where young men dressed in military and police uniforms reportedly set the Adventist church in Warrap State on fired during a worship service; Officials in Sudan’s West Darfur State say the humanitarian situation in the Jebel Moon locality continues to deteriorate with thousands of families displaced by recent fighting lacking basic needs