The chairman of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance (SSCSA) Deng Athuai has sharply criticized the two warring parties in the country and called on other nations to deport the children of leaders of these groups who are living abroad.

He was referring to the fact that many South Sudanese leaders send their children abroad rather than raising them in South Sudan itself.

Athuai, who was shot by an unknown gunman last Friday in Juba, spoke to Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday at Juba Teaching Hospital. He has been unable to attend the ongoing fifth round of peace talks in Addis Ababa due to his wounds.

The civil society leader blamed the warring SPLM-Juba and SPLM-IO factions, as well as the dissident SPLM-Former Detainees group, for failing to deliver services to the South Sudanese people since the establishment of the then semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan in 2005.

He said that South Sudanese should reject that these politicians ascend to power again in order to enrich themselves at the expense of citizens.

He called on the international community to impose tougher sanctions on the warring parties. “Their children who are living abroad should be deported back to South Sudan and their bank accounts should be blocked so that they experience the immense suffering the people of South Sudan are facing,” he said.

The activist noted that the people of South Sudan are facing violence, disease and starvation. Athuai urged the warring parties to reach peace in order to put an end to suffering of South Sudanese.

He also urged the authorities concerned to bring to book the culprit who tried to kill him with three bullets last week.

File photo: Deng Athuai