On the recordAugust 6, 2022
I have spoken twice this year about the despair and insecurity that are a daily reality for the people of South Sudan, despite independence 11 years ago that held so much promise and hope for that country. On January 6 and 31, I noted that the country's independence was a result of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement--CPA--which took years of negotiations facilitated in part by the United States, Norway, and the United Kingdom. It provided a roadmap for political stability, economic development, respect for human rights, and justice. I further noted that since then, two former warlords, President Kiir and First Vice President Machar--who were never elected--have dominated the political landscape. It is they, throughout these formative years, who have had the executive power and the responsibility to turn the aspirations of independence into meaningful improvements in the lives of their people. Eleven years later, the country is in a state of political paralysis, and its people are coping with a widening humanitarian crisis, brought on by violence instigated by government security forces, severe flooding, skyrocketing fuel costs, and acute food shortages compounded by the war in Ukraine which was a major source of grain imports for South Sudan. Millions of people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting, flooding, and hunger.…
