Juba, July 30, 2015 (SSNA) — The United States’s Special Envoy to South Sudan, Donald Booth, on Thursday delivered a strong message to South Sudanese government saying the US has “run out of patience” over nearly two year old conflict, adding that regional leaders and the international community also run out of patience.
The message comes more than two weeks before the 17th of August peace talk’s dateline, and less than a week after US President called on South Sudanese rivals to “put their country first.”
Booth made it clear to the South Sudan’s warring factions that the US cannot keep supporting peace talks that have no end.
“I want to be very clear with you all: the patience of my country, of the region and of the other international partners has run out. Too many lives have been lost, too many millions of South Sudanese have been displaced and too many are at the verge of starvation and facing homelessness. The talks can’t continue without end,” Booth told reporters in Juba.
“This situation can’t go on any longer,” he added.
It is not clear what the US is intended to do if South Sudan’s rival leaders failed to strike a peace deal by the proposed dateline.
IGAD-mediated peace talks collapsed in early March after South Sudanese warring groups failed to agree on power-sharing deal, security arrangements, among others.
Most South Sudanese believe that the US which engineered South Sudan independence from Khartoum’s regime, has not been vocal enough during the preceding peace negotiations.
Fighting broke out in December 2013 between different units of presidential guards after months of serious political skirmish between senior leaders of the ruling SPLM party.
At least two million South Sudanese fled their homes, hundreds of thousands fled to the neighboring countries, and tens of thousands of people have been killed, according to latest United Nations (UN) report.