South Sudan sliding towards full-blown crisis – report

JUBA (SUDANS POST) – The International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog used by policymakers and academics, performing research and analysis on global crises, has warned that South Sudan is “careening toward still more crisis” that the group says will only be avoided if the leaders embrace dialogue.

In a report released Friday, the conflict watchdog said President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s January peace agreement with the breakaway SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction creates for opportunity for conflict because it was aimed at weakening First Vice President Machar, President Kiir’s number one rival.

“South Sudan is careening toward still more crisis. By carving out separate agreements with dissident opposition commanders, President Kiir has further weakened his main opponent Machar, but in doing so he also ensured that the peace process would continue to flounder,” the group said in the report obtained by Sudans Post.

The group said President Kiir and his first deputy Machar should work collectively to accelerate the reunification of the rival forces provided for in the revitalized peace agreement and downsize the would-be professional national army in addition to conduct of community-based dialogue over the city of Malakal.

“Instead of constantly seeking tactical advantage, Kiir and Machar should work together to build a smaller, truly unified army and, in concert with local actors, promote community-level talks over the disputed city of Malakal to prevent renewed clashes in Upper Nile state,” the group said.

“More generally, South Sudan’s leaders, including religious figures, civil society representatives and business leaders, should explore a wider dialogue about the constitution and a decentralized form of national governance that moves beyond zero-sum competition for control at the centre and elsewhere,” the report adds,.

“The alternative is a stalemate that encourages armed mobilization in the non-stop scrum for local and national power, even as the country’s citizens grow ever more impoverished and disenchanted with their failing new state.”