The United States government and the regional governments under the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), emphasised the need for Uganda to pull out as a step to ensuring the implementation of the cessation of hostilities agreement that was signed in Addis Ababa.
Greenfield said: “The IGAD countries who had been supporting the negotiations supported Uganda’s decision as well as the request of the South Sudanese Government for Uganda to come in and provide security for the infrastructure, the important infrastructure such as the airport and the road between Uganda and Juba. And the Ugandans came in at the request of the government and with the support of the IGAD countries.
She added: “Now that a cessation of hostilities has been signed, we, along with others, call on Uganda as well as other governments to pull back so that we can move the peace process forward and give the people of South Sudan what they have fought for for more than 30 years.”
Earlier on in the news conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry had emphasised the US’s interest in South Sudan citing their role in its independence revolution.
Kerry said: “So here we have this new nation that is already in extremis, and we helped give birth to it. We feel this is the part of our responsibility. And we don’t want this to cascade into a more violent repetition of the past. So that’s why we’re committed. We believe this is part of the defining of the future of Africa, and we will remain deeply committed and personally engaged in an effort to try to help the people of South Sudan define their own future in peace and prosperity, hopefully.”
Although the two sides in the conflict ,led on the one hand by rebel leader and former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir on the other, had signed the cessation of hostilities agreement last month, it did not stick as fighting resumed almost immediately after the signing.
Observers say the rebels working diplomatically, have succeeded in persuading the US and IGAD which is chaired by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, to force Uganda out of South Sudan so that they can remove the government of President Kiir. The rebels have the backing of majority of South Sudan’s army.
In responding to the US order, President Museveni’s government has reportedly started considering the pull back. But president Museveni has reportedly told the NRM caucus meeting in Kyankwanzi that he would not be forced out of Sudan very easily.
