Fighting that started a month ago between Sudan and South Sudan along the oil-rich Heglig region on the border has provoked increased repression in Sudan, noticeably on the media, report the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Human Rights Watch, Index on Censorship and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 'Sudan is cracking down on civil and political rights in the face of conflict and opposition,' says Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. 'But locking up critics and silencing dissent will not solve Sudan's problems.'

South Sudan is losing its forests. And with no unified policy to deal with the situation the government is at odds, with one ministry saying that the loss of forests is a necessity for farming and another warning of the dire environmental consequences if this continues unchecked. While there is no information on the exact number of forests in the country, according to 2009 figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, forests and woodlands cover an estimated 29 per cent of the land area in South Sudan or 191,667 square kilometres.

Africa's newest sovereign state, South Sudan, is the highest riser in this year's internationally acclaimed global ranking Peoples Under Threat, indicating that the risk of further ethnic killings in the country remains critical, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says. In South Sudan, a new entrant in the top ten, a history of cattle raiding between the Lou Nuer and the Murle, as well as other groups, has developed into inter-communal violence on a highly organised scale in Jonglei state, affecting some 120,000 people. Tens of thousands of refugees have also fled across the border into South Sudan in recent months, escaping Sudanese government shelling of communities in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile state.