Note: This op-ed originally appeared in U.S. News and World Report and was written by Enough Project Founding Director John Prendergast.
As the grim tolls of death and destruction mount rapidly in South Sudan, the lack of any kind of coherent international peace strategy is becoming more and more painfully evident. The deadly zero-sum power struggle for control of the kleptocratic state machinery in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, ensures that the imagination and political will for peace will not be forthcoming from the warring parties on their own. What is required is a unified approach involving neighboring states, the African Union, the United Nations and interested governments like the United States and United Kingdom.
Not only is that unified strategy not being pursued, but the international actors most involved in peace efforts are committing five mortal errors in their approach to South Sudan that basically guarantee the continuation of conflict, famine and mass atrocities. The legacy of this hapless international record will stain South Sudan for generations…
Click here to read the full op-ed in U.S. News and World Report.