Warlords shows no peace will: Could have implications for Norwegian assistance – Dagbladet.no

warlords in southern Sudan shows no willingness to genuine peace negotiations. This may have consequences for the support of the Norwegian assistance favorite.

The complete absence of peace will “should mean that from Norwegian side regularly assesses the alignment and the weight of the Norwegian commitment to South Sudan,” according to a internal memo from the Foreign Ministry that NTB has disclosed.

Thursday participates Foreign Minister Børge Brende along with, among others, Secretary of State John Kerry at the UN high-level meeting on Sudan, where the crisis in the world’s youngest nation is on the agenda. Norway has for years been among the largest donors to South Sudan. Now, much of the aid to rubble after nine months of bloody conflict.

Sanctions

Also possible sanctions against South Sudan’s two irreconcilable warlords, President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar, can be discussed at the meeting.

The two held liable for liquidations, ethnic massacres, mass rapes, disappearances and large-scale recruitment of child soldiers by the power struggle between them exploded last December.

At a meeting of the African Union (AU) recently argued strongly, including the USA and the UK, that it is no longer enough to threaten the parties with sanctions. It’s time to bring up the rod and carry out the threat, it was claimed, according to a report from the meeting that NTB has accessed. “

It is completely unacceptable that it appears so little willingness to find a political solution to the crisis. Enough is enough, “it says.

Small seekers

But South Sudan’s neighboring countries, particularly Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, all of which play a central role in the peace process, little is eager to impose sanctions, said an official in the Foreign Ministry said. It will in fact be able to frame their own banking and financial sector, where South Sudanese leaders who have become wealthy after the peace agreement with Sudan in 2005, has placed large sums.

– Before the countries in the region supports sanctions will not Norway to do so, said the official in the Foreign Ministry.

Monday this week started peace talks again in Ethiopia, but hoped that the parties reach an agreement, the mildest said flimsy.

Gloomy

The situation may be even uglier: By year’s end, a three sørsudanere be affected by hunger. Over 180,000 children now receive treatment for acute malnutrition, according to Reuters.

Over 100,000 people, mostly women and children, have sought refuge in UN camps around South Sudan.

The camp outside the oil town of Bentiu in the north are in UD note described as “the worst place imaginable.” The camp is located in a swamp where water flows into and mixes with garbage and feces.

Donors fear a repeat of the famine in 1998, when between one quarter and one half million people died. The number of people who have been displaced as a result of the war, now approaching 2 million. Again, South Sudan received the sad status as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More War in store

But that does not prevent Kiir and Machar in wanting to continue the war. Both parties are doing what they can to obstruct the peace process, and instead use the time to refurbish, according to the note from the Foreign Ministry.

When the rainy season is over in October, there will probably be to brake loose again, according to UD note. “The international community will not sit idly by this. Requirements for a peacemaking force the UN to increase in power, “it says.