The past week has been described by a senior UN official as the “most bleak” in South Sudan’s short history, with pro-government gunmen storming a UN base in an attempt to kill thousands of terrified civilians and rebels accused of conducting massacres in churches, mosques and hospitals.
According to the UN’s top official in the war-torn nation, Toby Lanzer, the country has now descended into “a cycle of revenge” – barely three years after the fanfare that accompanied its independence from Khartoum.
For John Prendergast, co-founder of the anti-genocide Enough Project, only a “high profile initiative of the international community” including the United States – which was instrumental in helping South Sudan separate from Khartoum – stands any chance of preventing a protracted conflict and more atrocities.
“If it’s a low-key, under-the-radar begging operation, these parties are just going to laugh at it,” he said.
“If you have a very serious, high level engagement that has senior representation in key countries with some level of past and present influence, that brings to bear that kind of pressure, then you’ve got a chance,” said Prendergast, a former Africa director for the National Security Council during Bill Clinton’s presidency.