US to “reevaluate” relationship with South Sudan

November 13, 2019 (WASHINGTON) – The United States on Wednesday said it was “gravely disappointed” with South Sudan’s failure to form a Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) by a November 12 deadline and would “reevaluate” its relationship with the young nation.

“We will work bilaterally and with the international community to take action against all those impeding South Sudan’s peace process,” the US State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus said in a brief statement.

The US official also questioned the “suitability” of President Salva Kiir and the armed opposition leader Riek Machar to lead a country, where a bloody civil war has displaced millions of people

“Their inability to achieve this basic demonstration of political will for the people of South Sudan calls into question their suitability to continue to lead the nation’s peace process,” she Ortagus.

“We will work bilaterally and with the international community to take action against all those impeding South Sudan’s peace process,” she stressed.

Last week, President Kiir and opposition leader Machar agreed at a meeting held in Entebbe, Uganda, to delay key benchmarks in the peace agreement by 100 days.

The one-day meeting, chaired by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta was also attended by the head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Kenya’s Special Envoy to South Sudan, Kalonzo Musyoka.

The delay in forming a transitional national unity government by November 12 came after the main opposition group threatened to opt-out of the deadline, saying the country’s security arrangements were incomplete.

South Sudan descended into civil war in mid-December 2013 when President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup, allegations he dismissed.

In September last year, the country’s rival factions signed a revitalized peace agreement to end the civil war that has reportedly killed nearly 400,000 people.

(ST)