South Sudan Not Represented in South Sudan Talks

On Monday, President Obama met with foreign officials in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss the civil war in South Sudan and the numerous human rights violations and indiscriminate killing between the two rival sides. They also discussed the approaching August 17^th deadline to reach a peace agreement, and what action to take if this agreement is not achieved.

Those present at the meeting included Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, and the chairwoman of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The talks revolved around the civil war in South Sudan that began in December of 2013 when former vice president Riek Machar reportedly launched a coup against sitting president Salva Kiir. Machar served as vice president of South Sudan from its independence in 2011, until Kiir removed him in 2013. Ever since the war began, there has been nonstop conflict between those supporting the government (and thus Salva Kiir), and those backing Machar’s rebel force.

According to a US official, achieving a peace agreement in South Sudan may be quite the challenge, given that, “Sudan was arming and supporting the South Sudan rebels, while Uganda was supporting the South Sudan government by helping to defend the capital city Juba and protect an airport”. The official also mentioned that the US would “like to see Uganda encourage Salva Kiir to accept a ‘rational’ deal”.

The Obama administration is not in a position to credibly speak on deals between African countries, given that it has only now chosen to involve now, nearly 18 months after the conflict between the two sides first began.

The decision to exclude the South Sudanese government from talks Monday’s is questionable, all the more so since the talks included Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour. Ghandour undoubtedly represented the interests of Sudan, which has engaged in a variety of efforts aimed at keeping South Sudan divided and unstable.

But Ghandour’s presence was surprising for another reason. As previously mentioned in a CSP article, Ghandour’s predecessor at the position of Foreign Minister, Ali Ahmed Karti played a “role in past Sudanese genocides and in organizing the forces that terrorized Darfur”. Both Karti and Ghandour were in positions closely linked to indicted war criminal Sudanese President Omar Bashir. It’s reasonable to conclude that both Ghandour and Karti played a role in the genocidal campaigns against the South Sudanese orchestrated by Bashir.

While potential human rights violations from sides in the South Sudan civil war must be properly addressed, it seems unlikely that a peace agreement will be reached in South Sudan, when the Bashir regime, which benefits most from continued violence, is permitted to play a privileged diplomatic role.

As Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for Kiir, noted, “What we [the government in South Sudan] need from the international community is support…”

Inviting South Sudan to the table would have been a good start.