UN’s Hilde Johnson launches book on South Sudan

June 17, 2016 (JUBA) – Hilde F. Johnson, former Special Representative in South Sudan for the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, is due to launch a book this week which she has written on South Sudan’s political situation and civil war after independence.

The book entitled: ‘South Sudan, The Untold Story From Independence to Civil War’ is announced to be launched in London, United Kingdom, on 21 June, 2016, where she will brief an audience about the contents of the book.

Johnson served for three years in South Sudan as head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) which she established in the world’s youngest country per a mandate of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

In 2014, she completed her three-year tenure as UN’s special representative and head of UNMISS from 2011 to 2014.

Johnson has vast knowledge about the wars in Sudan and their peace processes which finally culminated in the end of the north-south Sudan’s civil war in 2005.

As minister for International Development of Norway for almost seven years from 1997 to 2005, Johnson was in charge of development policies and programmes, as well as humanitarian response in Norway.

During her ministerial tenure, she was a key player in brokering the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) for Sudan in 2005, an experience she has documented in the book “Waging Peace in Sudan” (2011).

However, her current book focuses on the three years of her experience in South Sudan from independence in 2011 to the civil war which erupted in December 2013.

Her book is expected to tell a lot of stories about what transpired in the political arena of the leadership which led to the civil war in the country.

(ST)