Kenyan and Ethiopian Leaders step in to Promote Peace amidst South Sudan Wars
Kenyan and Ethiopian leaders arrived in South Sudan on Thursday to try and mediate between the country’s president and the political rivals he accuses of attempting a coup that the government insists sparked violence threatening to destroy the world’s newest country.
Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn will meet with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir later on Thursday. World leaders have urged the country’s leaders to stop the violence in which thousands have been killed. The United States, Norway and Ethiopia are leading efforts to open peace talks between Kiir and his political rivals.
Leuth revealed that Government troops are trying to retake control of Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, from forces loyal to Machar. There was also reported fighting overnight in Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state. Upper Nile and Unity comprise the country’s key oil-producing region, raising fears unrest there could cut off the country’s economic lifeblood. South Sudan gets nearly 99 percent of its government budget from oil revenues.
“We are moving toward them and we will flush them out like we did in Bor,” he said, referring to the capital of Jonglei state that government troops retook from renegade forces earlier in the week. The President however said in a Christmas Address that he is willing to dialogue with the rebel troops.
Although the capital, Juba, is now calm, fighting appears to spread across the country, stretching the limits of humanitarian workers and aid agencies. The U.N. humanitarian office said aid agencies need $166 million to save lives amid continuing violence.
“The resources will be used to provide clean water and sanitation, health care, shelter, and deliver food and livelihood assistance,” the office said in a statement. “It will also ensure that the rights of vulnerable people, including survivors of violence, are better protected. The money will be used to manage sites for displaced people and transport aid workers and supplies to strategic locations where communities are most at risk.”
Some 58,000 people have taken refuge in and around U.N. bases in the country and more than 92,000 have fled their homes as a result of fighting that has raised fears of a civil war in the country, according to the United Nations.
South Sudan peacefully broke away from Sudan in 2011 following a 2005 peace deal. Before that, the south fought decades of war with Sudan. The country, one of the world’s least developed, still has pockets of rebel resistance and sees cyclical, tribal clashes that result in hundreds of deaths.