South Sudanese Push Back Against Oversight Government

The New York Times published on 23 January 2017 an article titled "Quandary in South Sudan: Should It Lose Its Hard-Won Independence?" by Jeffrey Gettleman.

The article reports a proposal for some kind of African Union transitional government to replace the existing government in South Sudan. There are other proposals that constitute an international trusteeship led by the United Nations and African Union. Gettleman reports there is strong resistance among the plurality Dinka ethnic group to any such proposal.

The Debate on Trusteeship for South Sudan

Kate Almquist Knopf, director of the Department of Defense Africa Center for Strategic Studies, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 20 September 2016. Her testimony was titled "U.S. Options as South Sudan Leaders Fail the Peace." She concluded that the only remaining path "is to establish an international transitional administration under a UN and African Union executive mandate for the country for a finite period of time."

The Juba-based Sudd Institute, an independent research organization, published on 18 October 2016 a policy brief titled "The Flaws in Kate Almquist Knopf's Call for Trusteeship in South Sudan" by Nhial Tiitmamer. It takes sharp exception to the suggestion that UN trusteeship is the solution to the problems in South Sudan.