There is ‘problem’ holding South Sudan government to account – UN diplomat

JUBA – A United Nations diplomat is saying that there is a problem in South Sudan holding the country’s government accountable saying there was need for elections to take place so that the country could elect an accountable government.

David Shearer, the outgoing United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) made the remarks during a press briefing in Juba on Thursday.

“What I’d really like to see is a government that is transparent and open with its finances, where it’s starting to take its own responsibility providing services, and it’s turning around with the confidence to say to the international community,” Shearer told reporters.

“It’s not going to services for the people of South Sudan and there’s a problem with holding the government accountable. That needs to be the rallying cry as we go forward – to bring everybody on board and to put pressure on the government to actually speak up and hold those elections,” Shearer added.

The United Nations diplomat further said the world’s youngest country has the potential to become a great tourist destination that could rival the region’s countries had it achieved stability from independence.

“If you [South Sudan] had stability, you would have a tourist industry that could rival any of the countries in East Africa, the Nile, the animals, and its extraordinary,” the outgoing UN envoy said.

South Sudan descended into a deadly civil war in December 2013 after a national convention for the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) turned violent triggering clashes and split within the army leading to civil war.

Almost half a million people are said to have been killed, according to rights organization estimate, and millions uprooted from their homes.

The government and opposition groups then signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement that had only lasted for less than a year. The implementation of the revitalized peace agreement – as it is called – is now witnessing difficulties as government complaints of lack of weapons for unified forces.

A United States diplomat said this week that the country has enough guns to arm the unified forces and urged the government to commit itself, once again, to the full implementation of the peace agreement that could usher in elections at the end of the transitional period.