NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Secretary of State John Kerry condemned South Sudan’s warring president and opposition leader as “disgraceful” Monday for squandering the promise of the world’s youngest country and pledged $5 million to create a court or another institution that might one day hold perpetrators of the nation’s violence accountable.
Speaking in neighboring Kenya, Kerry delivered an impassioned and even angry plea to President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar to compromise for the sake of their impoverished nation – and one the United States, more than anyone else, was instrumental in establishing. Tens of thousands have been killed in a power struggle that has raged since December 2013. More than 2 million have been uprooted from their homes.
“With each day, the ranks of the hungry and the malnourished grow,” Kerry said after discussing South Sudan’s crisis with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other officials. “And none of this had to happen. But it did happen because the country’s leaders failed to act on behalf of the best interests of their people and their nation.”
Kerry demanded that Kiir and Machar “silence the guns” and agree to establish a transitional government, while lamenting that neither has “chosen to make the compromises needed for peace.”
And in an implicit threat, the secretary of state said the U.S. was committing new funds to “create a credible, impartial and effective justice mechanism, such as a hybrid court, in order to hold perpetrators of violence to account.” He called on governments around the world to donate money to efforts that promote justice and reconciliation, which South Sudan’s citizens “so richly deserve.”