This archive report was first published on 30 November 2019.
On November 25, 2019, the United States took a significant step in the South Sudan peace process by recalling its ambassador to Juba. The move, announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was intended to pile pressure on the warring parties to expedite the implementation of a drawn-out peace process.
According to Pompeo, Ambassador Thomas Hushek was recalled to Washington for consultations 'as part of the re-evaluation of the US relationship with the Government of South Sudan given the latest developments.' The US aims to work with the region to support efforts to achieve peace and a successful political transition in Juba.
Washington's move reflects the growing impatience with the principals to the conflict and is in consonance with the African Union's peace and security council, which has demanded a clear matrix on how the 100-day deferral of the commencement of the transitional government is going to be utilised.
The AU has adopted a tougher stance that seeks to loop in the fringe rebel groups led by renegades Thomas Cirillo and Paul Malong. Under normal circumstances, the US move should elicit a positive outcome since it sends a strong signal of Washington's displeasure.
However, without supplementary measures that also have consequences for the backers of the main protagonists, it is unlikely to achieve much and could as well lead to the unravelling of whatever threads to peace have so far been put together.
Salvar Kiir, Riek Machar, Paul Malong, and Thomas Cirillo thrive because of backers within the regional community who facilitate their movement and business about the continent.
The South Sudan crisis is being described as the biggest humanitarian crisis in Africa since the 1994 Rwanda genocide. According to some estimates, close to 400,000 people have either died from violence, hunger, or disease since December 2013, when President Kiir and his former deputy Dr Riek Machar began fighting.
