Rebels urge UN assembly to address South Sudan crisis

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

September 25, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – As world leaders gather to debate global issues of concern in New York, an opposition faction of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) is calling on the United Nations General Assembly to address the ongoing political crisis in South Sudan.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Thursday, Miyong Kuon, the SPLM-IO representative to the UN in New York said world leaders should seek to know root causes of the conflict from both South Sudan government and the SPLM.

Kuon recalled that in December last year, SPLM leaders, demanded for democratic reforms in the party and government.

“However, it was this call, the President of the Republic of South Sudan uses to announce a false alleged coup, arrested party leaders, and imposed the current war on the country,” he said.

South Sudan’s more than nine-month old conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated more than 10,000 people and displaced more than a million people throughout the entire country.

Aid organisations warned of looming famine should the crisis in the country continue.

While extending appreciation to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for its efforts to protect displaced people at its camps and elsewhere in the country, Kuon urged world leaders to avert the threat of famine in the young east African nation.

He further appealed on the world body to redouble its efforts in reaching out to the conflict affected and displaced people across the country especially in Upper Nile region.

Meanwhile, members of the South Sudanese diaspora community held protest rallies rejecting president Salva Kiir’s participation at the UN general assembly meeting in New York.

“Thousands of South Sudanese Diaspora converged in New York on Monday, September 22, 2014 for demonstration rally against president Salva Kiir,” Kuon said.

The protesters, he said, called on world leaders to respect victims by bringing the perpetuators to justice.

The battle against arresting threat of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the threat of a rapidly growing of terrorism group known as Islamic State and climate change are top of the agenda at the ongoing sixty-ninth session of the UN General Assembly.

As world leaders deal with those unanticipated crises the globe is facing, these major issues top on agenda might overshadow other concerns in Africa including the crises in South Sudan.

More than 130 leaders of the 193 UN member states are participating at the week-long meeting.

(ST)