South Sudan: 'Tragedy' Cannot Be Resolved On Battlefield - U.S Ambassador

The U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan, Susan Page, has called on the country's warring sides to end three months of bloodshed and resolve, through talks, what she called "a real tragedy."

"This is not a conflict that should or can be won through the use of force and weapons," Page told VOA in an interview conducted Thursday at the State Department in Washington.

Unrest in South Sudan has left thousands dead, destroyed livelihoods, wiped towns off the map and eradicated "the little infrastructure that had managed to be built after 2005," when a comprehensive peace agreement was signed that ended more than 20 years of civil war in once-unified Sudan, Page said.

The current crisis, which erupted in December, "has to be resolved through peaceful negotiations, where people can understand each other and make a way forward to bring peace back to South Sudan," Page said.

Ambassador Susan Page: South Sudan 'a real tragedy'

"We reiterate there can not be a solution militarily to this conflict that is first and foremost political and where demands of people need to be heard," she said.

Media crackdown 'no good for image of South Sudan'

Page said the government of South Sudan was shooting itself in the foot by cracking down on media rights recently.

"This does no good for the image of South Sudan," she said.

"It's important they uphold their own constitution, which does guarantee free press and free speech... It does not serve the people of South Sudan well, the more they close political speech and political free space," Page told VOA.

"It will not serve the government or the people of South Sudan well, who really just want to hear different views and different perspectives," she said.

Ambassador Susan Page on media rights in South Sudan

As the troubles go into a fourth month, the United States has put on hold program support for South Sudan's security forces, the ambassador said.