A forgotten civil war in South Sudan: Close confidant of Donald Trump expected in Juba

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands more political pressure on the conflict parties in South Sudan in order to put an end to the civil war and to finally implement the peace agreement, which was signed in August 2015. The human rights organization accused the government of South Sudan of using a delaying tactic to avert international sanctions and the freezing of financial aid. “Now, just before the visit of Nikki Haley, the influential UN ambassador from the United States, the government of South Sudan suddenly announces new peace initiatives. This shows that Juba would probably react to more external pressure,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Wednesday. He emphasized that the international community must finally react to the refugee drama in South Sudan – and that all the conflict parties must show more responsibility. One third of the 12 million inhabitants of South Sudan are on the run. Haley will arrive in South Sudan today. The United States are the most important donor country.

It was only on Wednesday of last week that Festus Mogae, chairman of the “Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Committee” and former President of Botswana, had criticized the fact that the peace treaty has hardly been implemented yet. Mogae complained that the difficult humanitarian, political, economic, and military situation will not help to implement the peace treaty. In addition, ongoing impunity is adding to the climate of arbitrariness and violence. South Sudan’s Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth, had rejected the criticism, claiming that almost half of the provisions of the peace treaty had already been implemented and that further projects are being planned. In his opinion, only 31 percent of the goals have not yet been implemented.

“Makuei is trying to sugarcoat the dramatic situation again. Crimes against humanity are being committed in South Sudan almost every day – and the perpetrators are rarely held accountable,” Delius explained. As these crimes have to be punished, the peace treaty provides that the African Union must establish a court of law consisting of judges from South Sudan as well as international judges – but this never happened.

Since the outbreak of the civil war in December 2013, more than 50,000 people have become victims of violence. About two million people from South Sudan fled abroad, and another two million tried to find shelter in other parts of the country. More than 200,000 of these internally displaced persons found protection in the military camps of the UN peacekeeping forces.