*South Sudan and America Get your act together/ The Economist 01.08.15* Barack Obama urges African leaders to stop the continent’s worst war Aug 1st 2015 | NAIROBI | From the print edition
ON HIS recent foray into east Africa, Barack Obama did not pull his punches. While applauding the “extraordinary progress” of Africa in general, he told its leaders to cut out “the cancer of corruption”. Among other things, he urged his Kenyan cousins to treat their women better. In Ethiopia he called for more political freedom to bolster the country’s economic development. Casting his eye across the whole continent, he chastised leaders who sought to flout their term limits. And in his most direct intervention during the five-day safari he urged an end to the civil war in South Sudan, calling for targeted sanctions if the protagonists fail to take serious steps towards peace. The situation there is certainly as dire as ever. New depths of brutality have been plumbed during an offensive by South Sudanese government troops in oil-rich Unity state, where children were tied up in huts and burned alive, boys were castrated and women and girls publicly gang-raped. Civilians were shot at, hunted down and run over by tanks. Since civil war erupted in December 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed. More than 2m of the country’s 12m people have fled their homes. More than a third face famine and 166,000-plus have sought safety in UN bases ringed with razor wire and defended by peacekeepers. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an eight-country regional trading bloc that has been the main peacemaking forum, has set numerous deadlines, all of which have been missed or ignored. At a press conference in Ethiopia, which borders on South Sudan, Mr Obama weighed in behind IGAD. “If we don’t see a breakthrough by August 17th, then we’re going to have to consider what other tools we have to apply greater pressure on both parties,” he said. This may include an arms embargo and travel bans and asset freezes hitting, among others, South Sudan’s two warring leaders: President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, now his bitter foe. The latest draft agreement proposes a transitional government lasting 30 months to be followed by elections. Government troops and rebels would be brought back together in a single army. The capital, Juba, would be demilitarised. A truth-and-reconciliation committee would be set up, along with a special court to judge charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Mr Kiir would stay on as president with Mr Machar reinstated as his deputy. In other words, a return to the pre-war status quo. Optimists, despite Mr Obama’s eloquence, are understandably few. -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oqTj3uMaQFm%2B2eqW2aSczVFs2CqtOq1SW-N0gh1JCuq%2Bg%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
