MOSCOW, January 10, 17:01 /ITAR-TASS/. If the bloodshed in South Sudan is not stopped, it will damage the authority of all countries of the African Union without exception, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council upper house of RF parliament and RF presidential envoy for co-operation with African countries, told reporters on Friday.
He said that while two sides of the South Sudan conflict are trying to find common ground at peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, the number of internally displaced persons is growing in the country, armed clashes and killings continue, and the United Nations plans to transfer an additional contingent of peacekeepers to South Sudan. “And the negotiations themselves, apparently, have stalled due to the reluctance of the negotiators to compromise,” said the FC member.
According to Margelov, the creation of Africa’s youngest independent states could become “the biggest success of the policy of peaceful resolution of interethnic and interfaith conflicts on the continent.” “It could become a kind of the last point in a series of post-colonial wars in Africa and the triumph of diplomacy of the African Union and UN,” said the RF presidential envoy, acknowledging, however, that so far the “hope for success is replaced with the anxiety over failure.” He said that at present “the country is splitting more and more on an inter-tribal basis, and no ceasefire occurs.”
In the view of Margelov, in this situation extraordinary efforts of the international community are required. “The leaders of Ethiopia and Kenya are doing a lot as mediators between the warring sides of South Sudan, but now, perhaps, they should do more than that,” said the FC official. He stressed that if the bloodshed in South Sudan was not stopped before the end of January, when a summit of the African Union would be held in the capital of Ethiopia, “it will damage the authority of all member countries of the African Union without exception, and this must be avoided.