June 6th, 2017(Nyamilepedia) —— Briefing the Council on Foreign Relations, Chris Coons, a junior United States Senator from Delaware and a member of the Democratic Party, shared his recent conversation with South Sudan’s troubled President, Mr. Salva Kiir Mayardit.
Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, shared insights from his trip to Northern Uganda, where he met South Sudanese refugees before traveling to South Sudan to meet Politicians, civil society and other refugees in the country.
According to Coons, he was very honest with President Salva Kiir about escalation of the conflict and worsening of famine in the country.
“I had a very blunt conversation with Salva Kiir, someone who could do with more blunt conversations.” Sen. Coons told the Council.
Coons says he warned Salva Kiir to stop using hunger as a weapon of war and told him South Sudan could lose U.S. financial support.
The US Senator believes that the South Sudanese leader did not believe him instead he went on to claim that President Trump was his best friend and he [Kiir] is now considering visiting the White House to meet Trump’s entire administration.
Sen. Coons says he vividly told Salva Kiir that Trump does not even know that a country calls South Sudan exists on the map leave alone knowing its president.
In addition, Coons adds that Trump has other priorities that are more important than meeting Mr. Kiir.
“Salva Kiir told me Trump was his best friend and he looked forward to visiting the White House. I told him he’s never heard of you.” Coons says.
According to Senator Coons, Salva Kiir is not in position to solve South Sudan crisis or to open up a dialogue with the oppositions to solve the problem once and for all.
“That is the, I think, potential tragedy here. A slow rolling tragedy is the mistaken perception of the president of a young nation that he’s not responsible for finding a path towards peace, towards opening an effective national dialogue and towards welcoming the opposition into a process that will actually reconcile the country.” Â Said Chris Coons.
Frustrated over South Sudan’s crisis, Chris Coons calls on President Trump to appoint a Special Envoy for South Sudan though Trump has been hesitating to appoint Special Envoys so far.
PRINCETON LYMAN, a former United States special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan went far to suggest that South Sudan could be put under the international Trusteeship with the African Union taking control of South Sudan.
Both Coons and Lyman have wide understanding of African politics. Â While Lyman has worked as US ambassador To Nigeria and South Africa, and a former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Coons has volunteered as Relief Worker in Nairobi Kenya during his college years and attended school at the University of Nairobi before returning to US.
Despite a peace agreement signed in August 2015, South Sudan’s civil war, re-ignited in July 2016, has escalated to all parts of the country and induced a famine that has displaced millions of civilians over the last one year.
The United Nations has documented ethnic cleansing and warns about the possibility of genocide as ethnic targeting of civilians, backed by the elites, continued in Upper Nile and Equatorian regions of South Sudan.
