President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Friday approved four international conventions into law. 

A statement from the Office of the President said the conventions approved into law include the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Optional Protocol, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Protocol to The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, Jemma Nunu Kumba said President Kiir endorsing the treaties is an indication of his commitment to the people with special needs and women’s rights,
 
Reacting to the development, the rights group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) congratulated President Kiir for signing the international treaties. 

CEPO's Executive Director Edmund Yakani said: “This is a clear demonstration of political commitment to the respect of human rights by the political leadership in South Sudan, CEPO thanks Light for the World for supporting our influential advocacy and congratulates Right Honorable Speaker for the effective cooperation.”

He said CEPO in partnership with the South Sudan Union of Persons with Disabilities and Light for the World will work closely with the national ministry of gender and social welfare to develop action plans for the treaties. - Radio Tamazuj

A teenager is fighting for his life after being stabbed by a South London McDonalds. An eighteen-year-old was stabbed outside the Old Kent Road McDonald’s in Southwark in the early hours of Saturday (February 25) morning and remains in a critical condition.

Police were called at 4.14am following reports of a stabbing and found the injured teenager inside McDonald’s. He was taken to hospital where he remains in a "critical but stable condition". Is is thoughts that the stabbing took place outside the restaurant.

No arrests have been made. Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to call police on 101, giving the reference 1088/25FEB. Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

It comes as the capital has seen a host of other stabbings this weekend. A man in his 20s was stabbed in Hayes, causing injuries to his face, hands and legs. He was knifed in a newsagents on Coldharbour Lane in Hayes shortly before 4.14pm this afternoon (February 26) when police were called.

In Woolwich, a teenager was stabbed and remains in hospital fighting for his life. The boy, 19, was found suffering with stab injuries on Mayplace Lane in Woolwich just after midnight on Sunday.  By Lucy Williamson, My London

The Church of Uganda has denounced Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head of the global Anglican Church over a recent decision by the General Synod of the Church of England to permit the clergy to bless same-sex couples. 

In a statement jointly signed by the chairman of the Global South, Archbishop Justin Badi of South Sudan, and the provincial archbishops of Chile, the Indian Ocean, Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Alexandria, and Melanesia, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) say they "no longer able to recognize the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon & Most Revd Justin Welby, as the ‘first among equals’ leader of the global communion."

The primates also accuse Welby of having regrettably led the House of Bishops in England to support the motion on "Living in Love and Faith" well knowing that doing so would go against the orders and beliefs of the orthodox provinces in the communion, whose citizens make up the majority of the world's flock. 

The clerics also note that the Church of England has strayed from the historic faith and is no longer regarded as the "mother church" of the Anglican communion.

“Given this action by the Church of England’s General Synod, we believe it is no longer possible to continue in the way the Communion is. We do not accept the view that we can still ‘walk together’ with the revisionist provinces,” the statement added.

They further stated that as GSFA primates, they would swiftly meet, consult with, and work with other Orthodox primates in the Anglican Church across the nations to restore the Communion to its biblical foundation in light of the Church of England's loss of its position as the global Communion leader. 

The decision was not a surprise for Ugandans where Archbishop Rev Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu has been warning the faithful since December 2022 that they would begin the necessary procedures to leave the Canterbury, once it officially declared its support for same-sex unions.

When the national assembly of the Church of England chose to preserve the prohibition on Church weddings for same-sex couples while allowing priests to bless same-sex marriages and civil partnerships, Kaziimba reiterated the position of the Church of Uganda on the subject.

“And, if they refuse to repent, then we call on them to have the integrity to form their own Canterbury Communion because what they believe is not Anglicanism and it is not the faith once delivered to the saints. If they want to take their whole church into the belly of a whale, they are free to do that; we are, after all, autonomous Anglican provinces. They are not free to drag the whole Anglican Communion with them. The Anglican Communion is not an extension of the Church of England, the Church of England has departed from the Anglican faith and are now false teachers,” Kaziimba said.  

The Church of England has for long been the historical progenitor of Anglican churches around the world under what is termed as Anglican Communion, a loose federation whose bishops recognize the Archbishop of Canterbury in England as their spiritual leader. 

However, over the past decades, a section of Anglicans in Africa and other parts of the global South has become increasingly critical of the socially progressive tendencies of their mother church and others in the west. 

This criticism has focused particularly on same-sex marriage and related LGBT rights. To this effect, the conservative Anglican churches had over the years been severing ties with churches that espouse liberal views on homosexuality, including the Episcopal Church in the United States. - URN/The Observer