‘We’re sick and fed up with serving your people’ – US tells S. Sudan leaders

January 28, 2020 Newsbeat

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit meets Chairman of the SPLM-IO, Dr. Riek Machar Teny during a Consultative Meeting held late last year, (Photo: File)

January 29th, 2020 (SSNN)—The US Assistant Secretary for Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy calls on South Sudan’s government and opposition groups to make concessions on the number of states and their boundaries and form a unity government next month.

Nagy urged the country’s leaders to shift focus from the number of states and their borders and embark on achieving the peace and stability that the population so desperately needs.

He stated that the international community is looking forward to seeing positive change taking place in the country, noting that the people of South Sudan have suffered for a long time, and that leaders must act now to bring peace as a matter of priority.

“The international community is sick and tired and fed up with providing the government services that the government of South Sudan should be providing for its own people.”

“We want the process to succeed and this is the common theme … the people of South Sudan have suffered enough, they have been abused enough. The elites should move to serving their own people, instead of their own selfish interests,” said the US official.

There has been increasing pressure on South Sudan’s leaders to reach an agreement and form a unity government by February.

On Tuesday, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy said that if a lasting peace is to be achieved, South Sudan’s leaders must press ahead with the formation of a unity government, and then deal with outstanding issues later after taking that step.

“There is no reason why they cannot go ahead, form the unity government, and then agree to deal with those issues. I mean, take the number of states. It’s really not going to be a technical decision, because you can get a committee of experts to come up with very, very precise lines on, you know, exactly where the state should be, but at the end of the day it’s going to be a political decision,” said Nagy during a special phone briefing on Tuesday.