Nairobi — East African leaders yesterday called on South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and political rival Riek Machar to meet face to face to end the escalating violence in the world’s youngest nation.
Fighting, which erupted on December 15 in capital Juba and spread rapidly to six out of ten states in South Sudan, reportedly claimed hundreds of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people.
The leaders urged Kiir and Machar to meet before year-end, adding that they would not accept South Sudan’s government being toppled through use of military force.
“If hostilities do not cease within four days, the summit will consider further measures,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom told journalists at the end of the meeting in Nairobi.
Heads of state from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti met with South Sudan’s foreign minister and Sudan’s vice president.
Kiir and his former deputy Machar, whose rebel forces started the conflict, were part of the talks.
Machar, who is in hiding, is demanding that Kiir step down. He has accused the president of being dictatorial, while Kiir has expressed a willingness to negotiate an end to the fighting and to enter talks unconditionally.
“There should be immediate cessation of violence,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said during the closed session, according to a tweet by his spokesman Manoah Esipisu.
“South Sudan’s government must guarantee security of all its citizens.” The leaders were meeting as part of an extraordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a day after three-way talks in South Sudan’s capital Juba between Kiir, Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Ethiopia said the Juba meeting had been “constructive.” “IGAD will not allow overthrow of duly and democratically elected democratic government,” Kenyatta said, according to Esipisu.
Ethiopia and Kenya are founding members of IGAD, which includes Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda and Sudan. The bloc was founded in 1986. It has had South Sudan as a member since that country’s independence on July 9, 2011.
The conflict has taken on ethnic dimensions. Kiir belongs to the Dinka, the largest group in South Sudan, and Machar is from the Nuer people.
There have been growing tensions in the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since independence.
An intensifying power struggle between Kiir, who has a military background with little formal education, and Machar, who has a doctorate from Britain, peaked when key politicians challenged Kiir’s candidacy for the 2015 elections.
That Kiir and Machar come from different ethnic groups and regions within South Sudan caused further political ruptures.
The violence quickly spread to several other states, with fighting being particularly intense in Central Equatoria, Jonglei and Unity states, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 92,500 people had been displaced in the conflict, while some 58,000 people have sought shelter at UN peacekeeping bases throughout the country.
Neighbouring Uganda has received more than 7,000 South Sudanese refugees since last week, the Red Cross said. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday to nearly double its peacekeeping force in South Sudan, adding 5,500 soldiers to the 7,000 already in the country. An additional 1,300 civilian police are to join the mission.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier yesterday added his voice to growing calls for an end to the conflict.
“The killing must end,” he said. “The politicians of South Sudan are jointly responsible for ensuring that their young, independent state does not sink into chaos and misery.” — dpa
Fighting, which erupted on December 15 in capital Juba and spread rapidly to six out of ten states in South Sudan, reportedly claimed hundreds of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people.
The leaders urged Kiir and Machar to meet before year-end, adding that they would not accept South Sudan’s government being toppled through use of military force.
“If hostilities do not cease within four days, the summit will consider further measures,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom told journalists at the end of the meeting in Nairobi.
Heads of state from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti met with South Sudan’s foreign minister and Sudan’s vice president.
Kiir and his former deputy Machar, whose rebel forces started the conflict, were part of the talks.
Machar, who is in hiding, is demanding that Kiir step down. He has accused the president of being dictatorial, while Kiir has expressed a willingness to negotiate an end to the fighting and to enter talks unconditionally.
“There should be immediate cessation of violence,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said during the closed session, according to a tweet by his spokesman Manoah Esipisu.
“South Sudan’s government must guarantee security of all its citizens.” The leaders were meeting as part of an extraordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a day after three-way talks in South Sudan’s capital Juba between Kiir, Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Ethiopia said the Juba meeting had been “constructive.” “IGAD will not allow overthrow of duly and democratically elected democratic government,” Kenyatta said, according to Esipisu.
Ethiopia and Kenya are founding members of IGAD, which includes Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda and Sudan. The bloc was founded in 1986. It has had South Sudan as a member since that country’s independence on July 9, 2011.
The conflict has taken on ethnic dimensions. Kiir belongs to the Dinka, the largest group in South Sudan, and Machar is from the Nuer people.
There have been growing tensions in the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since independence.
An intensifying power struggle between Kiir, who has a military background with little formal education, and Machar, who has a doctorate from Britain, peaked when key politicians challenged Kiir’s candidacy for the 2015 elections.
That Kiir and Machar come from different ethnic groups and regions within South Sudan caused further political ruptures.
The violence quickly spread to several other states, with fighting being particularly intense in Central Equatoria, Jonglei and Unity states, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 92,500 people had been displaced in the conflict, while some 58,000 people have sought shelter at UN peacekeeping bases throughout the country.
Neighbouring Uganda has received more than 7,000 South Sudanese refugees since last week, the Red Cross said. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Tuesday to nearly double its peacekeeping force in South Sudan, adding 5,500 soldiers to the 7,000 already in the country. An additional 1,300 civilian police are to join the mission.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier yesterday added his voice to growing calls for an end to the conflict.
“The killing must end,” he said. “The politicians of South Sudan are jointly responsible for ensuring that their young, independent state does not sink into chaos and misery.” — dpa
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