WASHINGTON -- Three years after midwifing South Sudan's birth, the United States is desperately trying to prevent the world's youngest nation from falling apart.
The violence in the country has killed more than 1,000 people and driven 180,000 from their homes, and spread to neighbors killing each other purely on tribal identification, threatening a place that until recently was viewed by Democrats and Republicans alike as an American success story in Africa.
"Each day that the conflict continues, the risk of all-out civil war grows," Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. diplomat for Africa, warned Thursday.
"There is clear evidence that targeted killings have taken place, with Dinka killing Nuer, and Nuer killing Dinka. Countless civilians, particularly women and children, have become victims," she added.
For the United States, South Sudan's instability isn't just another example of a weak African state struggling to deal with political infighting, endemic poverty and deadly battles between the military and rebel groups. Because of its history as a largely Christian nation that was able to win its freedom from Muslim-dominated Sudan, South Sudan has a powerful constituency in Washington. And the bloodshed is proving an embarrassment to the U.S., which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country and been its strongest international champion.
The crisis began with a political dispute on December as President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, of trying to overthrow the government. Machar denies the accusation, accusing the government of rooting out political opponents. Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. had no evidence of a coup attempt, putting the initial blame on the government for raiding Machar's home.
The violence has spread significantly since, sparking a series of ethnically motivated attacks and counterattacks while groups allied to Machar have claimed military victories and greater control of territory. Meanwhile, Uganda has sent in hundreds of troops and provided Sudanese government forces with military hardware, and threatened deeper intervention if militants move on the capital, Juba.
Washington has mobilized on two fronts, organizing peace talks between representatives of both sides in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and getting the U.N. Security Council last month to approve 5,500 more peacekeepers to South Sudan.
The peace talks have yet to stop the fighting, though Thomas-Greenfield said a cease-fire was all but agreed if Kiir releases 11 high-level political detainees. Help also could also come soon for the 7,600-strong U.N. force in South Sudan, she added, even if only a Bangladeshi police unit has arrived thus far.
Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. was providing an additional $50 million in humanitarian assistance to South Sudan. But with the fighting preventing access to many parts of the country and a dearth of aid workers on the ground to deliver assistance, it is unclear what that commitment will mean in the short-term.
Earlier, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) also raised crisis alert level 3 in South Sudan, urging about 95 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to seek repatriation. (AP)
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