News / Interviews

South Sudan prefers to resolve problems internally: Journalist

Friday, 15 July 2016 9:57 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 15 July 2016 9:57 AM ]

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (L), talks to the media on July 14, 2016 at the presidential palace in Juba. (©AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, an editor with the Pan-African News Wire from Detroit, about South Sudan President Salva Kiir's opposition to the increase of UN peacekeepers in the African country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Salva Kiir’s opposition to having these foreign troops in his country possibly stems from prior experiences where foreign interests have not served the young country very well, your take on this please.

Azikiwe: Well, there are already 12,000 United Nations Mission to South Sudan troops inside the country. Uganda has also recently sent in troops. They had a larger contingent of troops there in previous years, but they have sent in troops under the guise of evacuating their citizens due to the escalation and fighting over the last week and a half.

So, this is the problem that is going on right now in South Sudan. So, the president is saying that he does not want the regional organization IGAD, which had a meeting in Kenya, to send additional troops. He feels at this time they need to try to resolve the internal problems without additional forces.

Press TV: And so, why do you feel the peace between these two men has been so elusive and truces between them so fragile and shaky?

Azikiwe: Well, these conflicts go back to the war of independence in South Sudan against the Republic of Sudan in the north and even during the course of the guerrilla war; there were divisions, there were splits. The two factions did come back together towards the end of the war - the development of a truce and an effective ceasefire and of course a transition to independence in 2011.

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