World

Obama Pushes for End to South Sudan Crisis

Monday, July 27, 2015 8:46 pm | 2 Minute Read

President Barack Obama is greeted by an honor guard as he arrives to meet with Ethiopian prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn at the National Palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

U.S. President Barack Obama holds a meeting on South Sudan and counterterrorism issues with African heads of state at his hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday. Pictured at the table are: U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan Donald Booth (R), Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Ghandour (2nd L, back to camera) and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (L). (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

President Barack Obama launched a personal push for peace in South Sudan on Monday, convening African leaders for urgent talks in neighboring Ethiopia aimed at keeping the world’s newest nation from collapsing amid civil war.

“The possibilities of renewed conflict in a region that has been torn by conflict for so long, and has resulted in so many deaths, is something that requires urgent attention from all of us,” Obama said. “We don’t have a lot of time to wait.”

The talks on South Sudan came on the sidelines of Obama’s visit to Ethiopia, his second stop on a trip to East Africa. He urged Ethiopia’s leaders to curb crackdowns on press freedoms and political opposition, warning that failure to do so could upend economic progress in a country seeking to move past years of poverty and famine.

“When all voices are being heard, when people know they are being included in the political process, that makes a country more successful,” Obama said during a news conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the July 28th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.