South Sudan must intervene before Sudan descends into chaos: activists

By Simon Deng

Sudan is in a crisis and activists are demanding its southern neighbor, and peace mediator, South Sudan to intervene to ensure stability.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization- a local NGO called on President Salva Kiir’s administration to take proactive role in mediating the standoff between the military generals and their civilian counterparts.

“My appeal is that the government of South Sudan needs to be proactive in finding an amicable solution in Sudan before Sudan descends into total chaos,” said Yakani in Juba on Wednesday.

“We have South Sudanese who are refugees in Sudan and if the situation continues to worsen, it will affect the humanitarian response. Anything that happens in Sudan has direct impact on South Sudan’s economy and her nationals living whether in Sudan or South Sudan,” he added.

Abraham Kuol Nyuon, political scientist at the University of Juba said that the South Sudan government should embark on shuttle diplomacy in Khartoum to talk to military leaders and the deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

“The political development in Sudan is not something that people of South Sudan should take as normal, it is an internal matter that also affects people of South Sudan, if the crisis continues then South Sudanese who are in Khartoum will be affected and secondly, the situation is likely to disrupt oil flow to Port Sudan,” he said.

Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the Sudan Sovereign Council on Monday dissolved the Sudan transitional government on the pretext of saving the country from descending into civil war.

The Sudan transitional government was formed in the aftermath of the ouster of long-time ruler Omar Al-Bashir through street protests in April 2019.

In October 2020, President Kiir mediated peace talks between the Sudanese government and several armed groups leading to the signing of the final peace deal in Juba.

South Sudan which won independence from Sudan in 2011, depends on Sudan’s oil infrastructure to export it’s crude through Port Sudan.

However, Deng Dau Deng the deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation said the Sudanese authorities are aware of their responsibilities to resolve their internal matters.

 “What happened is an internal matter that South Sudan cannot jump into conclusion and talk about it, it is an internal situation and our foreign policy does not allow us to talk about internal matters of other countries,” said Dau.

“We should not preempt what they will do, let us wait and see what will come of them they are very much aware of their responsibilities,” he added.