Peter Welch: “13 years ago last week South Sudan became an independent country. I want to congratulate the people of South Sudan on…”

“13 years ago last week South Sudan became an independent country. I want to congratulate the people of South Sudan on this milestone. The United States has long supported the aspirations of the people of South Sudan in their struggle for independence and democratic governance. John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, would visit the Senate to build support for the fight for self-determination. Today, despite those efforts, South Sudan is a textbook case of a failed state where, despite rich oil deposits, millions of destitute people depend on international aid for their daily survival. Last week, the United States announced more than $57 million in additional humanitarian assistance to address urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of crisis-affected people in South Sudan. In 2005, the year John Garang died, the United States, Norway, and the United Kingdom--known collectively as the Troika--supported Kenya and the other regional member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development to broker the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or the CPA. The CPA ended what, at that time, was the longest armed conflict in Africa and gave the people of South Sudan an historic opportunity to vote in a referendum that culminated in their Declaration of Independence on July 9, 2011.…”