South Sudan: John Kerry Calls for 'Bold Steps' to End Fighting

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on the government of South Sudan Thursday to take "bold steps" to end the conflict that has brought the country to the edge of famine and forced more than a million people from their homes.

Speaking at a meeting with South Sudanese Minister in the Office of the President, Awan Riak, Kerry "raised the need for the Government of South Sudan immediately to stop the fighting, provide full humanitarian access, and cease harassment and threats against the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS)," the U.S. State Department said.

Kerry also urged South Sudan's leaders to "prioritize the interests of the South Sudanese people over their own personal or ethnic interests."

"The United States will continue to stand with the people of South Sudan and with those who take the courageous - and necessary - steps to bring peace, stability and good governance to South Sudan, so that its people can return to their livelihoods and its economy can flourish. But we will not stand by while the hopes of a nation are held hostage to short-sighted and destructive actors," the State Department quoted Kerry.

The two men met days after President Barack Obama signed an executive order, clearing the way for targeted sanctions to be imposed on anyone who fuels the conflict in South Sudan, obstructs the slow-moving peace process or commits rights abuses in the young country.

The State Department did not say if Kerry and Riak discussed the U.S. sanctions, but the South Sudanese minister talked to South Sudan in Focus on Wednesday after a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Riak said that his government was not worried by the threat of sanctions because it has been working to restore peace, not stoking violence.

Riak told the audience at CSIS that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir is drawing up a roadmap to take South Sudan back to peace and stability.

Among the cornerstones of the roadmap are a cessation of hostilities and the convening of a national dialogue that will include all South Sudanese. Both proposed messures are among the "bold moves" Kerry said the United States was looking for in South Sudan.

In a somewhat rambling speech, Riak also said the outbreak of fighting on December 15 took the government by surprise.