A US-based organization, Enough Project, issued a statement on Tuesday calling for financial pressure on South Sudanese leaders to end the ongoing civil war in the country.
The call comes one day before the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley arrived in Juba as part of her trip to Africa.
John Prendergast, Founding Director at the Enough Project and Co-Founder of the Sentry, said: “To create leverage for peace, Ambassador Haley should work with allies to impose biting consequences on the leaders of governments or rebel groups and their networks of collaborators, who undermine peace, orchestrate war crimes, repress fundamental rights, and steal the natural resource wealth of their countries. There has to be a price for intransigence, and the U.S. has the underutilized policy tools to begin to exact that price.”
Brian Adeba, Deputy Director of Policy at the Enough Project, said: “As IGAD works on revitalizing the South Sudan peace process, the United States should use its leverage to ensure that all parties with grievances should be represented at the table. An inclusive peace process is vital to stemming the cycle of violence perpetuated by failed peace processes.”
The advocacy group said that its investigative initiative, The Sentry, has documented how key leaders in South Sudan have expropriated state resources for their own financial benefit, as the people of South Sudan suffer from displacement, war and severe food shortages.