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Peace pledge as South Sudan marks decade of troubled independence
President vows not to return the country to war as the world’s youngest nation marks 10 years of independence.
International
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, in a speech marking 10 years since independence, has pledged not to return the country to war.
At midnight on July 9, 2011, raucous celebrations erupted as the world’s newest nation was born and the people of South Sudan cheered the end of a decades-long struggle for statehood from Sudan.
But just two years later, oil-rich South Sudan was plunged into a brutal civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
Despite a fragile 2018 peace deal between Kiir and his rival Riek Machar, who now serves as a vice president, the country remains in the grip of political instability, economic malaise and an acute hunger crisis.
“I assure you that I will not return you back to war again. Let us work all together to recover the lost decade and put our country back to the path of development in this new decade,” Kiir said in a televised address on Friday marking the milestone.
He hailed a “new spirit of dialogue” among political rivals and said the Transitional Government of National Unity would focus on economic reforms and improving security.