S. Sudan’s Kiir, leaders mourn former U.S Secretary of State

Gen Powell signs the CPA in Nairobi on Jan 9, 2005 as SVP Taha sits behind him (sudantribune.com)

October 18, 2021 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Monday joined current and former world leaders to pay tribute to General Collin Powell, a fallen former United States Secretary of State.

Powell, 84, died from Covid-19 complications, media reports stated.

“I am saddened by the news of passing of Gen. Collins Powell, Gen. was the main fulcrum of President George W Bush for his push for a just peace in the Sudan,” Kiir noted in a statement issued on Monday.

He added, “It was through Gen. Powell’s efforts and determination that the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] was signed between the Sudan People Liberation Movement and the then government of the Sudan.”

WHAT OTHER LEADERS SAID

South Sudan’s Presidential Affairs minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin said “a peacemaker and great personality” has fallen. He urged South Sudanese to pay him rest and console members of his family.

Nhial Deng Nhial, who previously served as Presidential Affairs, Defense and Foreign Affairs ministers, said Powell was “a true human”.

He said Powell was one of those who helped the people of South Sudan achieve the peace that culminated in secession from Sudan.

“Power prodded the whole world talking about peace Sudan. He was a true human”, stressed Nhial

Former Petroleum minister, Ezekiel Gatkuoth descried the fallen former US official as a “friend” and a “global voice for the marginalized”.

“Gen Colin Powell was a friend, a global voice for the most marginalized and persecuted groups around the world. He was a staunch ally of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLM/SPLA) and the People of South Sudan. Without his support and that of his predecessors, South Sudan would not be what it is today, the independent Republic of South Sudan,” he wrote on his Facebook page on learning about Powell’s death.

A former top military officer, Powell became a trusted military adviser to several US leader after serving in the Vietnamese war, an experience that helped define his own military and political strategies.

The former US Secretary of State also played an important role in the search for peace in Sudan before South Sudan’s secession.

As Secretary of State under George W. Bush’s administration, he encouraged efforts that culminated in the signing the CPA in 2005, ending the Second Sudanese Civil War between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

(ST)