Date: Monday, 24 July 2017
Western donors are refusing to support South Sudan’s peace process any further, until a more credible agreement is put in place.
In 2015, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a peace deal, amid growing pressure from the international community. However, the country’s peace process has been marred by ongoing violence and reports of grave human rights violations, regardless of the terms set out by the agreement.
Donors from the European Union the United States, Britain and Norway say they will offer no more support for South Sudan’s peace process. In a statement issued on Thursday, major donors labelled the peace deal “obsolete in light of the expansion of conflict since 2015”.
Despite the continued outbreaks of violence, South Sudan’s government insists it has been implementing the peace deal – as per the terms that were agreed – since replacing rebel leader Riek Machar as vice president.
However, donors appear to have lost patience with the lack of progress in creating a peaceful South Sudan. They’re now refusing to support the existing deal until East African leaders find a way to relaunch the country’s peace process.
Government spokesman, Michael Makuei, says South Sudan will cooperate with East African nations on the country’s peace process but criticises the change of stance from Western donors.
He wants to remind donors that it was themselves who pushed for the deal to be signed, calling on them to either support their “child” or stop criticising the South Sudanese government.
“This (peace deal) is their child and it is their duty to ensure that this child survives,” he told Reuters. “If they don’t want to support, then let them be quiet.”
South Sudan is due to hold presidential elections next year, as part of the terms agreed in the 2015 peace deal. However, donors fear it will be used as an “unnecessary diversion” from ending the widespread violence, displacement and hunger in South Sudan.
