Juba. South Sudan rejected on Tuesday a United Nations appeal to halt the planned expulsion of the world body’s top humanitarian aid official in the country, saying he had regularly spoken out against the government.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned the move to expel Toby Lanzer, deputy head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, and said the British-born envoy had been “instrumental in addressing the increasing humanitarian needs of conflict-affected communities” in South Sudan.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Reuters: “It is impossible to reverse … [the] idea of expelling Toby Lanzer.” The cabinet came to the decision after Lanzer made comments that were “completely against the government.”

He gave no details. Lanzer has been active on Twitter, where he often posts messages about the dire situation in a country that has been mired in conflict since late 2013.

Lanzer had been due to leave shortly and his successor, Eugene Owusu of Ghana, has already been nominated.

More than 2 million people have fled their homes, with 555,000 departing for neighboring states. About a third of the nation’s 11 million people rely on food and other aid.

Fighting has pitted soldiers backing President Salva Kiir, the country’s leader since independence from Sudan in 2011, against those loyal to his former deputy Riek Machar, who was sacked from his post in mid-2013.

The conflict, which has flared up since the end of the rainy season in recent months, tends to follow ethnic lines that divided southern tribes even before independence. Kiir is an ethnic Dinka and Machar is from the Nuer group.

Peace talks in Ethiopia, sponsored by African states and backed the United States and other countries, have stalled over how to share power between the rival camps. Mediators have been trying to restart negotiations.

Kiir held discussions on Tuesday in Juba with visiting African mediators, including South African Vice-President Cyril Ramaphosa, as part of efforts to reunify the fractured ranks of Kiir’s ruling SPLM party, Ateny said.

Kiir also met a group of South Sudanese political opponents who were detained early in the crisis before being allowed to leave for Kenya. Of the 10 originally detained, five returned on Monday as an advanced party.

“We have come back for dialogue with our colleagues in SPLM and for dialogue also with our colleagues in the government of South Sudan,” former minister Deng Alor said on arrival in Juba.

Ateny said the remaining five would come back on June 25.

Reuters

The post South Sudan Says It Won’t Reverse Its Move to Expel UN Official appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Juba. South Sudan has called off elections due in June and its cabinet plans to ask parliament to extend President Salva Kiir’s term, a government spokesman said, as a violent power struggle between Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar rumbles on.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than a million have fled their homes since fighting between supporters of the two erupted in the world’s newest nation in December 2013.

In a roadmap to peace agreed earlier this month, Kiir and Machar agreed the outlines of a power-sharing deal, and they are hoping to reach a final accord by the end of March.

Government spokesman Michael Makuei said that the proposal to extend Kiir and parliament’s terms will be presented to lawmakers on Tuesday and that he was confident it will be approved.

“The cabinet decided yesterday to give peace a chance by calling off the elections and amending the constitution,” Makuei told Reuters.

“The cabinet decided to extend the period of the life of the office of the president and Parliament.”

Kiir’s and parliament’s terms were due to end in July. Makuei said the proposal to extend them was aimed at avoiding any power vacuum in the event that the government fails to reach a permanent deal with rebels it is fighting.

The two sides need a transitional government in place by July.

The cabinet has said new elections will now be held in 2017.

Reuters

The post South Sudan Calls Off Elections, Aims to Extend President’s Term appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.