South Sudan's main opposition party rejects president's call for dialogue to avoid civil war
Pal Mai Deng, a spokesperson for the opposition SPLM-IO, said President Salva Kiir 'must release political and military leaders of the SPLM-IO who are in detention to show his seriousness about the dialogue.'
During the reopening of parliament on Wednesday, Kiir said there was a need for unity and national reconciliation, adding that the 'doors of peace remain open.'
'The suffering of our people must not be prolonged by the continued rejection of dialogue,' he said.
The situation in South Sudan remains tense after Vice President Riek Machar — Kiir's former rival — was placed under house arrest following an attack on army bases in March. Several members of the SPLM-IO opposition party have gone into exile fearing arrests.
South Sudan signed a peace agreement in 2018, ending a five-year civil war in which nearly 400,000 people died as forces loyal to Kiir and Machar clashed.
Deng told The Associated Press that Kiir's appeal was 'paradoxical and insincere' due to the arrests of opposition officials and army attacks on opposition forces.
'Before he (Kiir) urged the parties to resume dialogue, he needed to stop military campaigns against SPLM-IO forces and indiscriminate killing of Nuer civilians he considered anti-government,' said the exiled spokesperson.
The CEPO civil society group has warned that Machar's detention has made the continuation of talks impractical.
'The absence of Machar in the function of the government in day-to-day business of the government is making the government of national unity unbalanced,' Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of CEPO, said.
The United Nation warned last month that a 2018 peace agreement was on the verge of collapse due to escalating violence, political repression, and foreign military involvement.
Yasmin Sooka, chairperson of the UN's Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, described the situation as a 'crisis' adding that the peace agreement was at the 'brink of irrelevance, threatening a total collapse.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Arab News
Sudan crisis worsens as violence escalates in Kordofan and Darfur
CAIRO: Fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region that has killed hundreds and ongoing violence in Darfur — the epicenters of the country's conflict — have worsened Sudan's humanitarian crisis, with aid workers warning of limited access to assistance. The UN said more than 450 civilians, including at least 35 children, were killed during the weekend of July 12 in attacks in villages surrounding the town of Bara in North Kordofan province. 'The suffering in Kordofan deepens with each passing day,' Mercy Corps Country Director for Sudan, Kadry Furany, said in a statement. 'Communities are trapped along active and fast-changing front lines, unable to flee, unable to access basic needs or lifesaving assistance.' Sudan plunged into war after simmering tensions between the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated to fighting in April 2023. The violence has killed at least 40,000 people and created one of the world's worst displacement and hunger crises. In recent months, much of the fighting has been concentrated in the Darfur and Kordofan regions. On Thursday, the UN human rights office confirmed that since July 10, the RSF has killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Bara, while civil society groups reported up to 300 people were killed, the office said. A military airstrike on Thursday in Bara killed at least 11 people, all from the same family. Meanwhile, between July 10 and 14, the army killed at least 23 civilians and injured over two dozen others after striking two villages in West Kordofan. An aid worker with Mercy Corps said his brother was fatally shot on July 13 during an attack on the village of Um Seimima in El-Obeid City in North Kordofan. Furany said that movement between the western and eastern areas of the Kordofan region is 'practically impossible.' The intensified fighting forced Mercy Corps to temporarily suspend operations in three out of four localities, with access beyond Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, now being in 'serious doubt,' Furany said, as a safe sustained humanitarian corridor is needed. Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council who is often based in Port Sudan, said that fighting has intensified in North Kordofan and West Kordofan over the past several months.
Arab News
13 hours ago
- Arab News
Druze Sheikh Akl in Lebanon calls for Arab and Turkish sponsorship to reassure Syrian people
BEIRUT: Former Lebanese prime ministers Najib Mikati, Fouad Siniora, and Tammam Salam announced during their meeting on Saturday with former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt at his home in Beirut their support for the steps and positions taken by the Syrian state to 'heal the national rift in Syria,' against the backdrop of escalating events in Sweida between the Druze and the Bedouins. The Sunni former prime ministers emphasized 'the need to prioritize dialogue, openness, and tolerance among our Syrian brothers in order to nip sedition in the bud, and to do everything possible to strengthen internal national unity among all Syrian citizens on the basis of citizenship and justice for all.' The attendees praised Jumblatt's stance on the ongoing events. They denounced 'Israel's interference and aggression against Syria, stressing that this interference in Syria's internal affairs is unacceptable and condemned. It aims to fragment and divide the Syrian people, and to incite and turn certain forces and parties against each other, under the pretext of protecting our true Arab Druze brothers from the Bani Ma'rouf in Jabal Al-Arab, who believe that what Israel is doing is the implementation of a malicious, exposed, and unacceptable plan to perpetuate its occupation of the Syrian Golan.' The statement issued by the attendees called for 'the need to initiate an immediate ceasefire and affirm full commitment by all parties to it, to free the kidnapped, lift the siege, and restore public services. They also called for efforts to establish communication, understanding, and tolerance among all Syrian citizens to prevent strife and stop the bloodshed. This should then lead to constructive dialogue among them, based on the unity of the Syrian identity, the principles of citizenship, the unity of the Syrian homeland, the sovereignty of a single, capable, and just state, and the integrity of all Syrian territory.' The attendees stressed 'the necessity of an impartial investigation committee to hold accountable those who instigated the sedition and those who carried out and perpetrated the killings and attacks against peaceful civilians, regardless of their affiliation.' They also denounced 'attempts to exploit the dangerous events in Syria to spread tension and sedition to Lebanon,' affirming that the Lebanese Army and state security agencies will stand guard against these malicious and despicable attempts. Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Heikal visited the Sheikh of the Druze community, Sheikh Sami Abi Al-Muna, on Saturday evening, accompanied by Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Odeh. Discussions focused on 'ways to contain the repercussions of the events in Syria on the Lebanese scene and preserve internal security stability,' according to a statement issued by the attendees. Abi Al-Muna called on everyone in Sweida 'to unite under the umbrella of the state.' He said: 'However, this places the responsibility on the Syrian state to reassure its people and instill confidence among the people, so that citizens will surrender their weapons and commands to it. This is a difficult task, but not impossible, and Arab and Turkish sponsorship is essential.' Arab tribes in Lebanon have also taken action to prevent any repercussions from the events in Sweida. A delegation from the Arab Zreikat tribes visited Sheikh Abi Al-Muna and affirmed their 'solidarity with the Druze community and their condemnation of the painful events in Sweida Governorate.' Sheikh Abi Al-Muna described what is happening in Jabal Al-Arab as 'something alien to our customs and traditions, and we are trying to calm our youth so that things do not slide into an absurd confrontation in Lebanon and undermine coexistence.' Sheikh Kamel Al-Daher, on behalf of the tribal delegation, stressed the need to 'quell the strife in the face of those who throw words and money at it, and for the Syrian state, headed by Sharaa, to stop the bloodshed, address the issue, and establish reconciliation, as is our tradition.' Representatives of the Progressive Socialist Party, the largest party under which most of Lebanon's Druze are united, met this morning with representatives of the Arab tribes in the Bekaa and agreed that 'Lebanon should not be a crossing point for any tensions.'
Arab News
13 hours ago
- Arab News
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
KHARTOUM: Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum on his first visit to the capital, ravaged by more than two years of war, since assuming office in May. Touring the city's destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence. 'Khartoum will return as a proud national capital,' Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations. According to Khartoum state's media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city's airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army's victory in the capital. But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone. The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country. Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services. On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that 'national institutions will come back even better than they were before.' The refinery — now a blackened husk — was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP. Idris is a career diplomat and former UN official who was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a 'government of hope.' The war has created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people suffering dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country. A further four million people have fled across borders. In Sudan's southern Kordofan and western Darfur regions, the fighting shows no signs of abating, with the paramilitaries accused of killing hundreds in recent days in attempts to capture territory.
