Africa News

South Sudan Crisis Moves Beyond Borders

Kenya and Uganda, Rebuffed on Planned Pipeline, Join Effort to End
Conflict as Cease-Fire Talks Show Little Progress
By
Patrick McGroarty in Johannesburg,
Nicholas Bariyo in Kampala and
Laurence Norman in Brussels
Updated Jan. 8, 2014 1:30 a.m. ET
Kenya and Uganda were recruiting investors to back an oil pipeline in South Sudan in
December when a rebellion upended the world's newest nation.
Now the two East African nations have joined a diplomatic effort to end the conflict in
South Sudanyet another reminder of how the security crises of a volatile region intrude
on efforts to boost commerce among its countries.
"I'm not sleeping," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a televised address last
week. "I am monitoring the crisis which is taking place in the young country of South
Sudan and I want to see that peace is attained there."
More than 1,000 people have died and more than 100,000 have fled their homes since
troops loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar rose up in December against those
loyal to President Salva Kiir .
On Tuesday, South Sudanese military spokesman Philip Aguer said government troops
launched an offensive to recapture the strategic town of Bor, 130 miles north of the
capital of Juba. The same day, clashes broke out in the oil-producing Upper Nile state, as
government troops battled rebels who were advancing on oil fields, said Col. Aguer.
Meanwhile, peace talks in Ethiopia continued to show little progress. Negotiators are
trying to broker a cease-fire and reach a consensus on what to do with 11 of Mr. Machar's
supporters arrested in South Sudan after fighting broke out in December. European
officials said Tuesday that the European Union was prepared to help monitor an eventual
cease-fire and help guide a reconciliation process in South Sudan once the situation is
stabilized.
The officials also warned that "spoilers" who stand in the way of the reconciliation efforts
could face EU sanctions or other types of "international consequences."
The crisis has marked a fresh setback for those who placed their faith in the healing
power of regional commerce.

East African nations have bet that closer economic ties to their dysfunctional neighbors
can help cool long-running conflicts and boost their own growth prospects. South Sudan,
Africa's No. 3 oil producer, is the latest sign that the bet may not pay off.
Conflicts elsewhere in East Africa have bedeviled similar pushes to integrate dynamic
economies with fragile states.
In May, the World Bank said it would spend more than $1 billion on hydroelectric-power
plants, roads and agricultural infrastructure along the border between Uganda, Rwanda
and the crisis-racked Democratic Republic of the Congo. But Congo's mineral wealth
appears to have inflamed fighting and put those projects at risk. Somalia's porous border
with Kenya has helped tighten their trade links, but it also allowed Somali militants to
move easily into Nairobi and, in September, kill dozens at an upscale shopping mall.
Perhaps the tightest bond between a failing state and East Africa's prosperous core was
the proposed pipeline from South Sudan's oil fields to Kenya's Indian Ocean port of
Lamu.
By providing a new route to international markets that bypassed Sudan, South Sudan's
longtime foe, Uganda and Kenya hoped to grab a big chunk of the $7 billion that Sudan
earns annually to export South Sudan's crude through an existing pipeline. Plans to
recruit investors for the plan are on hold now as the crisis simmers.
Alexander Rondos, a top EU diplomat, lambasted South Sudanese leaders for allowing
political squabbling to squander the potential of the new country.
"In 2 years, they have failed to deliver, having been given a lot at the beginning," he
told a group of reporters in Brussels. "This is not a natural disaster, this is a man-made
disaster."
Yet proponents of integration say that the dysfunction in these countries only suggests
how much stronger East African nations could become by getting their neighbors on
track. Economic growth across East Africa is set to average more than 5% this year,
according to the African Development Bank. That includes marginal growth in South
Sudan and even Somalia, where the economy is so wrecked that there are no formal
statistics.
"When a neighbor is unstable then we all are affected," said Richard Sezibera, secretarygeneral of the East African Community, a trade bloc that includes Kenya, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi.
Speaking in Nairobi on Monday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director
Christine Lagarde urged Kenyan business leaders to stick with their integration project.

"Regional integration has opened up new markets, supported the emergence of a middle
class, and enabled domestic demand to become an engine of growth. The process must
now be deepened," Ms. Lagarde said. "This is an opportunity but also a major challenge."