Dr. Luka Biong Deng, former Director of Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Juba, has advised President Kiir’s government not to reject the African Union proposal to send regional troops to South Sudan.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, Luka Biong said the decision taken by the government to reject deployment of regional force is not in the interest of the people of South Sudan.
“The government of South Sudan is part of the international community, a member of the AU, IGAD and the UN” said Luka.” There is a trend internationally that issues are solved at the regional levels. So when the IGAD and the UN agree on something, it is not in the interest of the South Sudanese government to oppose it” he added.
Luka pointed out that the government should instead negotiate nationalities, number and mandate of the regional troops expected to be deployed in South Sudan.
According to the South Sudanese observer, the regional forces are mandated to protect peace and civilians in South Sudan.
President Kiir vowed recently to not allow even a “single foreign soldier” to deploy in South Sudan in his reaction to the African Union resolution to deploy a third party force to separate rival forces in South Sudan.
The government also organized demonstrations in Juba and in some states to reject the deployment of additional foreign forces with senior officials vowing to fight them should they deploy.
File photo: Luka Biong