US envoy tired of South Sudan warring

President Obama outlined the options at a meeting July 27 in Addis Ababa with leaders of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, the chair of the African Union and the foreign minister of Sudan. Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to visit Ethiopia.

Kuala Lumpur (dpa) – The executive board of the global Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday recommended the recognition of strife-torn South Sudan as a member of the world’s largest sports body.

The decision to approve South Sudan’s membership was taken following a presentation to the Executive Board by the IOC’s director of National Olympic Committee relations Pere Miró.

Following much liaison work conducted by the IOC, along with the officials from the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and Sudan, the nation from which South Sudan declared independence in 2011, eight such Federations have now been formed, including athletics.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Radio Tamazuj that the government has expressed reservations on some points in the IGAD proposed peace deal to end the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

If South Sudan is formally approved Sunday, as expected, it would become the 206th country – the latest after Kosovo – to gain Olympic recognition.

South Sudan’s participation at Rio 2016 is set to be against the backdrop of a bitter civil war there, however.

“The Olympics is all about bridging gaps and building bridges between different communities”, Adams said.

“This is a great message to send to that troubled region”.

Thousands have been killed and more than 2.2 million displaced since fighting broke out in December 2013 between President Salva Kiir’s government and rebels commanded by Riek Machar.

South Sudan foreign minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin says his country plans on Wednesday, to officially send a petition to both the AU and IGAD for breaching protocol by refusing to inform or invite the “constitutionally elected” South Sudanese government to the meeting with Obama. The fighting has spurred a humanitarian crisis, throwing the world’s newest nation into turmoil four years after its inception.