Juba, December 3, 209 (SSNA) — South Sudan’s government and the opposition parties have failed to find a solution to the issue of the number of States and boundaries, a senior official with the ministry of foreign affairs who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media told the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) on Wednesday.
The official explained that the government is not interested to reduce the number of States and that it will be difficult to find a resolution to the issue.
“I know we in the government, a few of us actually, are not interested in the proposed reduction of the number of,” the official says.
The official also disclosed to the SSNA that IGAD and international peace partners have already started working on their own plan to come up with a solution to the issue of the states.
The current 32 states are viewed by South Sudanese as tribal. President Salva Kiir has consistently been accused by non-Dinka tribes of taking other tribes’ lands and gives it to his tribe, Dinka. At least half of the 32 states are given to Dinka.
Here in Juba, rumors have it that the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE), a notorious tribal group, told Kiir that the 32 states must stay or they can only be reduced in a way that benefits Dinka.