South Sudan’s ruling party’s (SPLM) former secretary-general, Pagan Amum has formed an advocacy group seeking to bring the world’s youngest nation under the administration of the United Nations.
In an interview with VOA, Amum said he wants the international community to directly intervene in South Sudan to prevent the country from collapse.
He described ‘South Sudan Reborn’, as a platform for advocacy and education; campaign to keep the young nation united and not divided on tribe.
The initiative, he further stressed, would have to involve regional players like the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African continent, the Troika countries and members of the international community to save South Sudan.
The group’s aim “is to bring the violence to an end through calling on the United Nations to take over South Sudan.”
According to Amum, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar have “failed” the country.
“President Salva Kiir took the country to a civil war, which he made very brutal and tribalistic, and now the genie is out of the bottle and it is out of control,” he said adding: “President Kiir has miserably failed to take the country back to peace.”
Amum urged appealed to leaders, including Kiir and Machar, to pave way for technocrats.
He said the South Sudan can only succeed if those tasked with managing it put in place strong institutions that promote good governance, democracy and human rights.
Amum, one of the country’s former political detainees, recently expressed the African Union proposal to send foreign troops in South Sudan to support the United Nations peacekeepers, a move rejected by the Kiir administration.
