World leaders, activists demand end to S. Sudan conflict
December 15, 2014 (JUBA) – Monday marks the one-year anniversary since conflict broke out in South Sudan.
Aid agencies warned that about 2.5 million people could face severe food shortage early next year, should the ongoing violence between the warring parties continue.
The United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, said he was both saddened and dismayed over failure by the parties to reach a comprehensive peace agreement.
“The leaders of South Sudan have allowed their personal ambitions to jeopardise the future of an entire nation,” Ban said on Monday.
“This is tragic and unacceptable. The killing must stop now,” he added.
Ban urged leaders from both sides to agree to an inclusive, power sharing arrangement to begin a transitional phase of governance that will address both the root causes of the conflict and ensure accountability for crimes committed over the past year.
“They must end the culture of impunity if reconciliation and a sustainable peace are to be achieved,” he said.
Reiterating the UN’s continued support for the peace process, Ban called on the international community to strongly rally behind the peace process led by the East African regional bloc (IGAD) and commended the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) for creating a heads of state ad-hoc committee for this purpose.
US president Barack Obama appealed to the leaders of South Sudan to pursue peace as a way to honor those who have died.
“It is in your hands to end the cycle of violence, to set forth on a course of reform and reconciliation, and to hold to account those responsible for atrocities,” Obama said in a statement last week.
“Leadership that recalls the promise of South Sudan is what the country now needs to end this senseless conflict,” he added.
Obama also urged the people of South Sudan to seek peaceful reconciliation rather than violent retribution, further pledging US commitment to stand with the country and its population.
According to John Prendergast, founding director of the Enough Project, “More than a quarter of this new country’s lifespan has been spent engulfed in a meaningless war driven by insatiable greed and a thirst for power”.
“As in so many wars over the last century, a relatively few senior opposition and government officials have gotten rich, while the vast majority of citizens are displaced or more deeply impoverished than they were before independence,” he said.
“The only way this cycle of corruption, conflict and impunity is stopped is if there is a severe consequence for those that undermine the peace process, orchestrate human rights abuses and/or engage in grand corruption,” he added.
(ST)