Monday, April 28, 2014

TUESDAY 29 APRIL 2014

South Sudan President Warns Against Imported Solutions for African Problems
Republic of South Sudan President Salva Kiir.
April 28, 2014 (JUBA) - South Sudan president Salva Kiir, has said Africa should not look to elsewhere to solve African problems; warning that otherwise the continent will end up with solutions imposed on it.

"African problems are African problems and they should get solutions from African leaders. The problem is that some of us think solutions to our problems would come from somewhere else. This thinking must change otherwise we will have solutions which do not address our problems imposed on us”, president Salva Kiir said on Sunday.

Kiir made the remark in a speech broadcast by the state owned South Sudan television on Sunday, which showed him addressing a forum on peace and security held outside the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The function was attended by other regional leaders, including the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir and the Ethiopian prime minister. Other important political figures on the African continent that attended the forum and made presentations on security matters included the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo.

The former Nigeria’s head of state is the current African Union’s appointed head of commission of inquiry on human right violations, allegedly committed during the fighting which erupted in South Sudan when the initially viewed as an internal rift within the leadership of the governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) slipped out and escalated into a military conflict.

This is the second time president Kiir appears opposed to solutions to African problems coming outside the continent. In 2013 he expressed his dissatisfaction with the involvement of the International Criminal Court in African affairs, describing the latter a tool to target African leaders.

Kiir said at the time his leadership would not support the taking of the current Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta to answer charges brought against him and his deputy, William Ruto, at the headquarters of the international criminal courts at The Hague.

It remains unclear why Kiir appears critical of the involvement of the outside world in Africa’s affairs. Some analysts interpreted his statements as reflecting frustrations with the failure by the western government to accept claims of his administration that there was a coup in the country.

However, the African Union has also not agreed that the fighting that triggered the conflict in South Sudan was a coup attempt.

Over one million people have been displaced and thousands killed in fighting between those loyal to president Kiir and those who have broken away from the ruling party and armed forces.

(ST)

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