The statement below was issued yesterday on behalf of the United Kingdom, United States and Norway, a group known in Sudan as the ‘Troika’ countries, as well as France, Canada and the Netherlands:

We, the Troika members and the Permanent 3 Security Council Members, plus Canada and the Netherlands, are concerned about the situation in Jonglei State. Militia forces, the lack of infrastructure and economic opportunities and seasonal migration contribute towards an environment where the rule of law is scarce and civilian lives are endangered. Children are not at liberty to go to school, those who break the law are not brought to justice and there is little hope for investment or prosperity.

We call on all leaders - within the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS), its organised forces, faith and ethnic groups - to urge their people to stop the violence. They should move back from confrontation and return to the agreed resolutions of the All Jonglei Peace Conference and urgently implement the measures therein. 

As South Sudan is now successfully implementing the various 27 September 2012 agreements as set out in the matrix, and as international partners prepare to meet in Washington to agree how best to support South Sudan’s future, the prospect of further killing in Jonglei State risks undermining the peace and prosperity that you fought so hard to achieve.  

More specifically we:

• Welcome the efforts of GRSS to bring renegade David Yau Yau and other armed groups in from the bush peacefully. These groups’ violent acts are harming the prospects for peace in Jonglei State, and harming the people they claim to represent. The risk of indiscriminate or disproportionate use of force is high, and must be avoided at all costs.
• Urge the GRSS to facilitate UNMISS access across Jonglei, and work with UNMISS, recognising the valuable role UNMISS can play assisting the protection of civilians, when it is free to operate.
• Welcome the increased civilian policing presence in Jonglei State, and support further measures to provide community security across the State through trained, disciplined and accountable police officers.
• Recognise the duty of the GRSS to protect its people from violence. All parties in Jonglei State have suffered loss. We reiterate the Government’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions on the protection of civilians, and its commitment at the Jonglei Conference to address grievances, including to conduct investigations into alleged abuses by SPLA and others and promote peaceful dialogue.

Photo: UK Ambassador Alastair McPhail with the Jonglei Governor in September 2012 (UK Embassy)