South Sudanese cabinet affairs minister has on Friday lambasted international human rights and advocacy groups keen to highlight the performance of the government on multiple fronts on a host of issues
Martin Elia Lomuro equated calls by advocacy and rights organisations on the government to be transparent and be accountable to the people as “an international campaign” against the government of President Salva Kiir, dismissing a report by the United Nations blaming the country’s political elites for looting millions of dollars.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said a huge amount of money and other wealth amounting to more than $73 million has been looted by political leaders since the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in 2018 with almost $39 million being stolen in a period of fewer than two months.
“This plundering also continues to fuel political competition amongst elites, and is a key driver of the ongoing conflict, violations and serious crimes, jeopardizing the prospects for sustainable peace,” the commission said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 23.
Lomuro considered that this report is directed against the government of President Salva Kiir in Juba.
“These are organizations that are sponsored not to see political stability in South Sudan, and they will move from one thing to the other, from human rights to corruption, from corruption to something else,” he said.
“This country is sovereign … if the government has mismanaged anything, it’s only the people of South Sudan who can hold this government accountable, not external forces,” he stressed.
Source: Sudan Tribune