ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
The African Union Commission appointed Mali’s former president, Alpha Oumar Konare, as its High Representative for South Sudan.
The appointment is aimed at “further strengthening the AU’s contribution toward ending the conflict in South Sudan and the untold suffering inflicted upon the civilian population,” according to an AU statement issued late on Tuesday.
The statement added that Konare, who is committed to Pan Africanism, will significantly contribute to finding a solution to the conflict in South Sudan.
Konare was president of Mali from 1992 to 2002 and had served as the chairman of the AUC from 2003 to 2007 and the chairperson of the AU High Level Panel for Egypt, between 2013 and 2014, according to the statement.
South Sudan has been shaken by violence since mid-December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused former vice president Riek Machar of standing behind an alleged coup attempt against his regime.
Tens of thousands were killed in the civil war that continued to this day despite the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement the warring parties signed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa under an IGAD-mediated peace process.
