Nairobi, July 25, 2015 (SSNA) — The President of the United Stated of America Barack Obama on Saturday announced that the US and Kenya have to work together to find a successful peace solution to the ongoing civil war in South Sudan.
The news comes as Obama, who is on a two-day official visit to the East African economic powerhouse — his father’s ancestral country, Kenya, urges African leaders and the international community to work together to find a peaceful solution to ongoing conlfict in the violence-plagued young nation.
“Our nations [US and Kenya] are going to work together, in order for us to be successful,” Obama told reporters.
At a packed news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Obama said he had a good discussion with the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on many regional security issues, particularly on South Sudan.
“…on the terrible conflict in South Sudan which is taking so many lives that caused unbearable suffering for the South Sudanese people,” he said.
“The situation is dire…and the best way to stop fighting is for South Sudanese leaders to put their country first with a peace agreement that ends the fighting,” Obama asserted.
The United Stated which staunchly helped South Sudan gained her independence from Sudan in 2011, has been somewhat muddled of what to do about the conflict given the complexity of the situation.
Most South Sudanese believe that the US and its Western allies may not have good options to play with given the fact that Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni who is directly fighting alongside South Sudan’s government troops against rebels is an ally of the West.
IGAD-led peace negotiations collapsed in early March after South Sudan’s rival leaders failed to agree on power-sharing deal and security arrangements.
Fighting erupted in December of 2013 between presidential guards after months of political disagreement between senior leaders of the ruling SPLM party over political differences.
Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, at least two million fled their homes, and hundreds of thousands also fled to the neighboring countries.