USA meddling in independence of South Sudan amidst coup d’état

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by Steve Paterno and Scott Morgan

When a Country celebrates their Independence Day it’s generally considered
to be a festive occasion. For the United States, John Adams envisioned a
day with parades and fireworks. Recently South Sudanese celebrated their
5th Anniversary of Independence not with festivity, but with bloodshed,
after gun fire rocked the city of Juba. A coup was in a making.

The power struggle was between Riek Machar against Salva Kiir. Mr. Kiir a
Dinka is currently President of South Sudan. Mr. Machar is a Nuer who was
forced to flee after the 2013 fighting. He has now been restored to his
position as First Vice President by a Peace Accord imposed by the UN and
backed up by Peacekeepers. And then, he broke again through fighting. The
conflict puts an ethnicity face into it. It is tribal. A tribe against
another.

So when the situation within the country imploded and the US beefed up the
security at its embassy in Juba with 47 strong marine forces, a sense of
paranoia set upon the country. It appears that the South Sudanese have had
such a horrible relationship when it was united with Sudan and felt they
were being invaded by foreign forces. That fact was actually promoted
within the country with reports that the US was invading the Country and
taking over. It was a miscommunication or both. US has poor communication
with South Sudan government and so are South Sudanese people with the
American administration.

A Press Release issued by the US Embassy sought to allay such fears of a US
Occupation. Now the rhetoric has returned to a feared takeover by IGAD and
the UN. Is there a remedy that could restore confidence by the people
toward the GOSS? It is clear that for the sake of National Sanity that
tribalism is not a prescription for South Sudan. Whomever becomes the
leader should not have their power undermined by Sudan or the Troika Powers
( USA, Great Britain and Norway) either. Nor should it be the location of a
potential proxy war between Khartoum, Kampala, Niorobi, Addis or any one.

The thing that South Sudan needs almost as badly as new leadership is a
Marshall Plan of its own. The Country has very poor infrastructure to put
it mildly. Developing a road network could actually benefit the Agriculture
Sector and reduce some of the hunger Issues affecting the Country.

Another Area that needs to be addressed in order for the Country to move
forward is to move away from Tribalism. Most of the fighting which is
politically motivated has been conducted on this level. So this makes
having a standing National Army very difficult. This leads to regional
actors backing certain Political Movements and Tribes and making the
situation more chaotic. So these actors such as Sudan, Uganda and Kenya
could actually find themselves at war in the future over South Sudan if
they are not careful.

When the word chaos is written out in Mandarin the characters for both
danger and opportunity are used. That is a very apt metaphor for the
current situation within South Sudan at this time. We see the danger but
the opportunities for stability are well hidden.

*Steve Paterno is the author of The Rev. Fr. Saturnino Lohure, A Romain
Catholic Priest Turned Rebel. He can be reached at [email protected]
<[email protected]>*

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