Economist Peter Biar to lead anti-Kiir rally in Washington

JUBA – South Sudan activist Peter Biar Ajak is among other African opposition leaders who will on Wednesday stage a rally before the White House in Washington DC to express their disapproval of US relations with repressive African regimes including the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

The rally, Biar told Sudans Post in an interview on Sunday, is being organized by activists from South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, as well as other African countries, and is aimed at bringing to the attention of the US government the suffering of African people under the governments in these countries.

“What is happening is Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan are helping each other. So, we realize that we as opposition leaders have to help each other. So, what is happening now is we are combing our forces and our voices and putting our pressure on out leaders and showing our people that they have to wake up,” he said.

“So, what we want to do is we want to shake the mind of our people and get them to wake up and we want to tell the Biden administration that you can’t relate with governments that are corrupt and governments that are killing out people,” he added.

He called on the Biden Administration “have to work with us as the leaders [and] as the future of the African continent and we are working with our people, our people are tired of these regimes and they want change and we are the change that they want.”

US-AFRICAN SUMMIT

The rally coincides with the US-Africa summit that is expected to bring together most of the African heads of state with President Joe Biden from December 13 to December 15 where COVID-19, climate change and impact of Russian invasion on African trade will top the agenda.

President Biden is set to deliver remarks at a U.S.-Africa business forum, hold small group meetings with leaders, host a leaders’ dinner at the White House and take part in other sessions with leaders during the gathering, the Associated Press reported.

African leaders have already started leaving for the US, but sources in Juba have told Sudans Post that President Salva Kiir has instead dispatched the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation Mayiik Ayii Deng to represent President Salva Kiir.

“The United States prioritizes our relationship with Africa for the sake of our mutual interests and our partnership in dealing with global challenges,” Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs and former US ambassador to South Sudan, told reporters before the summit.

“We are very conscious, again, of the Cold War history, we’re conscious, again, of the deleterious impact of colonialism on Africa, and we studiously seek to avoid repeating some of the mistakes of those earlier eras.”