More than 35 young women wearing tight trousers were arrested in South Sudan for disturbing the peace, senior police officials said Oct. 7. The arrests in Juba, the capital of autonomous South Sudan, were part of an ostensible campaign against youth gangs. The women were arrested the night of Oct. 5 and were released without charge the next day. Many Juba residents reacted angrily to the arrests. "We saw about 30 girls in two trucks piled up like animals," said Nok Duany, a civil servant. (Reuters, Oct. 8)

This is an ominous sign that South Sudan, which fought a long war to secure its autonomy from the Islamist regime in Khartoum, is adopting the intolerant ideology of its erstwhile enemies.

See our last posts on Sudan and the Sahel.