Americas

Americas

US scrambles to avert civil war in South Sudan

10 January 2014 20:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three years after midwifing South Sudan's birth, the United States is desperately trying to prevent the world's youngest nation from falling apart, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

Yet despite shared consternation by the Obama administration and Congress, no one is quite sure what the U.S. can do to bring peace to a country that in many ways owes its existence to the United States. The violence has killed more than 1,000 people and driven 180,000 from their homes in the last month, and spread to neighbors killing each other purely on tribal identification, threatening a place that until recently was viewed by Democrats and Republicans alike as an American success story in Africa.

The crisis has sowed deep concern at the White House. President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, called Thursday for an immediate ceasefire, warning that South Sudan could otherwise witness the escalation of a crisis that its people cannot afford.

The risk of all-out civil war is growing, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa.

"There is clear evidence that targeted killings have taken place, with Dinka killing Nuer, and Nuer killing Dinka. Countless civilians, particularly women and children, have become victims," Thomas-Greenfield said.

For the United States, South Sudan's instability isn't just another example of a weak African state struggling to deal with political infighting, endemic poverty and deadly battles between the military and rebel groups. Because of its history as a largely Christian nation that was able to win its freedom from Muslim-dominated Sudan, South Sudan has a powerful constituency in Washington. And the bloodshed is proving an embarrassment to the U.S., which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country and been its strongest international champion.

The crisis began with a political dispute on Dec. 15 as President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of trying to overthrow the government. Machar denies the accusation, accusing the government of rooting out political opponents. Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. had no evidence of a coup attempt, putting the initial blame on the government for raiding Machar's home.

But the violence has spread significantly since, sparking a series of ethnically motivated attacks and counterattacks while groups allied to Machar have claimed military victories and greater control of territory. Meanwhile, Uganda has sent in hundreds of troops and provided Sudanese government forces with military hardware, and threatened deeper intervention if militants move on the capital, Juba.

Washington has mobilized on two fronts, organizing peace talks between representatives of both sides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and getting the U.N. Security Council last month to approve 5,500 more peacekeepers to South Sudan.

The peace talks have yet to stop the fighting, though Thomas-Greenfield said a cease-fire was all but agreed if Kiir releases 11 high-level political detainees. Help also could also come soon for the 7,600-strong U.N. force in South Sudan, she added, even if only a Bangladeshi police unit has arrived thus far.

In a solemnly worded statement late Thursday, Rice said the U.S. wants both sides to sign a ceasefire immediately, although she singled out Machar, calling his insistence that detainees be released as a precondition "unacceptable." At the same time, she said the U.S. was disappointed South Sudan hadn't released the detainees and called on Kiir to release them without delay.

"It is the obligation of both President Kiir and Mr. Machar to ensure that the lives of their people and future of their young country are not further marred by continued violence and atrocities," Rice said.