United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the fightingin South Sudan’s capital Juba today shows the country’s warring parties are not committed to peace process.
Ban said he is “deeply alarmed” by the fighting which engulfed the city today.
“This outbreak of hostilities in the capital, on the eve of the country’s fifth anniversary of independence, is yet another illustration of the parties’ lack of serious commitment to the peace process and represents a new betrayal of the people of South Sudan, who have suffered from unfathomable atrocities since December 2013,” Ban said.
“I urge President Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar to put an immediate end to the ongoing fighting, discipline the military leaders responsible for the violence and finally work together as partners to implement the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan,” the top UN official said.
He said he is also gravely concerned by resurgence of violence in Wau and Bentiu, warning that it could lead to a dramatic deterioration of the security situation across the country.
“I demand that international humanitarian law be respected and also that unfettered access to those in need by United Nations and humanitarian partners be ensured,” he said.