Leading South Sudanese activist Edmund Yakani says that this week’s Bentiu fighting proves that President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar do not yet want peace.
“The ongoing fighting in Bentiu justifies what we have said before that the warring parties are not ready to ensure that the country return back to peace and stability,” said Yakani, who is the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization.
Yakani said it is up to Kiir and Machar to stop the war, but that the two men still belive in a “military solution of solving the problem.”
He said the fighting in Bentiu shows that the political breakthrough in Arusha last week between Kiir and Machar is meaningless.
“We may not anticipate peace within this year,” Yakani said. “It will take long and we may need a long period because this attitude of Bentiu justified that.”
He said both parties need to drop their preconditions for peace, including Kiir’s demand for a prime minister without executive powers and Machar’s that Uganda’s troops should leave. Yakani said such preconditions have become obstacles to ending the fighting.
Meanwhile, the IGAD mediation team released a statement calling on the SPLA-In Opposition to immediately cease hostilities and for government forces to demonstrate restraint.
Radio Tamazuj: South Sudanese activist Edmund Yakani speaks in Juba