South Sudan Rebel Leader Calls on President to Resign

NAIROBI, Kenya – South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar has threatened to lead the ouster of President Salva Kiir if he fails to vacate office.

“Should President Kiir remain adamant and refuse to hand over power to the people, then the citizens have every right to rise up and overthrow his regime“, Machar said, adding Kiir’s term ended from midnight on July 8.

South Sudan is also preparing to mark the fourth anniversary of its independence from Khartoum on Thursday, an event that marked an end to decades of war but only provided a brief respite from conflict.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit yesterday during a ceremony to launch South Sudanese coins for the first time acknowledged that the introduction of the new coins alone would not improve the economy.

“President Kiir and Riek Machar would rather haggle over personal power and wealth than agree on solutions”, she said. Large numbers of child soldiers have also been recruited. “We are fighting in the country and both can not go, war and development”, Kiir said.

“Early attempts by the various legislatures at national and state levels to rescue their respective constitutions by way of pretentions to amend their constitutions to extend their terms of offices by three years could not have saved the situation legally”, Machar said.

“I am a victim, just like all the other victims who died, except I am not dead”, he said.

“All of them are innocent”, he said.

In his independence anniversary speech, Kiir blamed the rebels for what he called a “senseless war” that has persisted since December 2013.

According to an IGAD report issued Wednesday, the government violated a ceasefire agreement signed previous year “by launching multiple offensives against towns south of Bentiu in Unity State held by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO)”.

Aid groups say about 3.8 million people, or a third of the population, are going hungry.