South Sudan rejects AU military intervention, terms it as invasion

Monday July 25, 2016

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir PHOTO/REUTERS

Southern Sudan will treat any external force into Juba as a hostile force, a senior government official has said.

This comes after last week's Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers meeting in Nairobi resolution to sent more troops in the troubled young nation to back the UN mission.

advertisements

The meeting had followed an African Union (AU) summit in Kigali which had mooted and supported the idea to have soldiers from the continental force-Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda and Ethiopia deployed to Juba following renewed deadly clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his First Vice President Riek Machar.

"AU and IGAD has no factual information on what is happening that is why they are trying to push for such interventions," John Andruga Duku a member of government of South Sudan negotiating team said.

"But the position of the government is that any intervention will be considered as an invasion, and the force will be treated as hostile and will be met with same hostility from the people of Southern Sudan," the former envoy added arguing that events from Iraq, Somalia, Libya, and Afghanistan interventions had shown that it helps sink those nations to more turmoil and they don't want South Sudan to be part of those statistics.

"They have never intervened anywhere and brought peace, therefore, we don’t accept to be used as guinea pigs," he said.

Already he said the government was committed to seeing stability and the peace agreement sail through saying that any foreign intervention will spell death to the peace agreement.

"Once capital Juba is put under foreign force control, the independence of S.S will be gone and the colonial era will set in. Despite the challenges we are confident that we can get solutions to our own problems," he added.

Duku said already calm has returned in Juba saying that those fleeing Juba aren’t leaving fearing for their lives but because of hard economic times that has hit the country.

"The heavy fight witnessed on July 8, has died down, soldiers are back to the barracks none is patrolling the streets, the government is functioning and the borders opened. It is only the low purchasing powers that are making some people ran away," he said.

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online