The U.S.’ top envoy to Sudan told lawmakers last Thursday that the war-torn African nation risks being consumed by turmoil for years without the help of the U.S. and its international partners.
In testimony before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, the Honorable Princeton Lyman said that recent fighting between North and South Sudanese forces along their border is indicative of that country’s failure to solve its disputes through peaceful diplomacy.
“The Government of Sudan’s decision to resort to military action rather than resolving problems exclusively through negotiation, if not quickly reversed, will have major consequences for the government and people of Sudan,” Lyman said. “Sudan risks the international support it needs, and which would be readily available, if it does not return to the path of peace and negotiations.”
The subcommittee’s Chairman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), held the hearing to focus on lingering issues that could stunt the development of South Sudan, which is set to declare its independence from the North on July 9.
“There is the undefined border, citizenship questions regarding southerners living in the North, governance issues for the post-independence nation, equitable sharing of oil revenues, the question of the liberation and repatriation Sudanese still held in bondage and, of course, the continuing northern military attacks,” Smith said.
Lyman told the subcommittee that the UN will soon sign off on a resolution establishing a new peacekeeping operation based in South Sudan. Earlier in the day, Lyman met with President Obama at the White House to discuss the matter. In a statement released later that day, Obama voiced “deep concern” over the fighting that has continued to grip Sudan.
Though leaders from the North and South reached agreement on Monday to withdraw their militaries from the disputed region of Abyei, which rests along the North-South border and is claimed by both sides, governments worldwide are concerned that neither side will be able to hold up its end of the bargain without the support of the international community. Moreover, experts who have monitored the region for years are worried that the South will require myriad assistance to overcome a lengthy humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of thousands.
Dr. John Eibner, who heads the organization, Christian Solidarity International, told members of the subcommittee that close to 35,000 Southern Sudanese people remained enslaved in various parts of the country. Eibner called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would enforce the recommendations put forth by the International Eminent Persons Group in 2002. In its detailed report, the group argued that ending slavery in Sudan would require participation from a coalition of nations. Furthermore, Eibner touted H.R. 3844, a bill introduced back in 2007 by Smith and former Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) that would create an international body to monitor slavery and to propose ways of eradicating its practice.
Lyman, who has traveled to the region in an effort to broker a peace deal between the North and South, told lawmakers that the short-term goal of the U.S. should be to influence Southern Sudanese leaders to manage its conflict with the North diplomatically, and to focus on a framework of governance for its people.
Smith agreed on the need for American leaders to invest in the region. “We must do all we can to help this new nation come into being in peace and help its government to safeguard the life and liberty of its people,” he said.
In the meantime, according to Lyman, leaders from North and South Sudan must help themselves by coming to terms on key priorities such as oil revenue sharing and debt. Failure to do so could trigger an economic collapse in the South, he said, where thousands of people are unskilled and uneducated. Lyman testified that the Government of the new Southern state must find ways to provide people with work training, or otherwise risk seeing its lower class succumb to militias bent on recruiting through violence and intimidation to make their voices heard.