REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KHARTOUM -- The South Sudanese government Tuesday refused to walk back its decision to expel the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs despite appeals by the international organization to Juba not to go ahead with its decision.
The United Nations announced Monday that South Sudan decided to expel Deputy Chief of the UN Mission and coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs Toby Lanzer.
"We cannot withdraw our decision to expel Toby Lanzer," elaborated South Sudan's Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Tuesday.
He clarified that the move "is a sovereign decision taken by the cabinet due to statements made by the UN official which were deemed to be anti-establishment."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Juba's move, urging it to retract its decision immediately.
South Sudan secured its independence in 2011. However, it cascaded into violent clashes in December 2013 as fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.
The conflict soon became an all-out war, with violence taking on an ethnic aspect, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.
The warfare left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes.
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