Dinka elders minimise U.S. sanctions on South Sudan

February 3, 2018 (JUBA)- A prominent member of the Jieng (Dinka) council of elders Saturday has downplayed the impact of the weapons embargo imposed by the American administration on South Sudan.

Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey, a leading member of the council and a legislator at the council of states, the upper house of the lawmaking body in the country, said the new measure would not end the war.

“The measure is unlikely to end the war. This war is not controlled or fueled by the Government. The only known rebel group is the SPLM IO (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition). But the rest of militias or rebels are on their own”, Akuey wrote on his Facebook page in a reaction to the ban

The legislator claimed U.S. President Donald Trump has lost global influence to make an impact, pointing to the American local politics which appears to have a leading space in foreign policy under administration.

“Also, President Donald J Trump is not any longer a leader of the world as assumed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It is very clear that the United States cannot and will never conclude peace in Africa or anywhere in the world,” he said.

“The American national interests override any countries’ interest. Now the America First sloganeering and protectionist monger cannot bother people outside the United States ‘first'”

“He should be told to confine his rhetoric to “America First,” he stressed.

His comments followed a decision of the United States to ban export weapons to South Sudan in a bid to put pressure on the South Sudanese warring parties three days before the resumption of the IGAD-mediated peace revitalization process on 5 February 2018.

The South Sudanese government, however, seems unaffected by this symbolic embargo because it used to get weapons from China, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union.

The United States, according to the statement released by the State Department, is appalled by the continuing violence in South Sudan that has created one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises.”

Washington further expressed hopes that the United Nations, IGAD, Canada, EU, China and TROIKA countries may follow suit”, the statement points out.

(ST)