WASHINGTON, August 12 (RIA Novosti) – US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that Washington was concerned about negotiators in South Sudan, failing to form a transitional government of national unity, despite of “mediation team’s best efforts.”
He hit out at the nation’s government and the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, saying the two had been failing to meet the deadline “again and again.”
“Deadlines keep passing and innocent people keep dying. The log-rolling and delay has to end,” Kerry stressed.
The US top foreign official added the conflicting parties had previously agreed to take no more than 60 days but “neither party engaged in peace talks seriously.”
“Along with my Troika colleagues from Norway and the United Kingdom, we condemn these failures. This is an outrage and an insult to the people of South Sudan. Their leaders are letting them down again and again,” he stated.
Over a million people have been displaced due to the fighting in South Sudan, which now faces the worst food security crisis in the world with a real risk of famine, Kerry said.
South Sudan is in an ongoing civil war between the government and opposition forces. Regional leaders previously called for punitive measures if the parties failed to secure peace by the agreed deadline.
