Red Cross boss to meet Museveni over South Sudan

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, is expected to meet President, Yoweri Museveni, Monday in Kampala over the South Sudan crisis.

Maurer, who arrived in Kampala on Sunday from South Sudan, hinted that during the meeting with Museveni, he will encourage him and his regional counterparts to do more to find a political solution to the crisis in the world's newest nation.

Addressing a press conference at the ICRC offices in Kololo, a Kampala suburb, on Monday, Maurer noted that there is no military solution to the South Sudan crisis, and that all actors in the conflict need to embrace dialogue to find an end to the civil strife.

"There is a lot of pain and suffering on the faces of South Sudanese both in South Sudan and in Uganda. I have engaged the actors in South Sudan and I think all actors need to do more to stop the crisis," he stated.

Uganda is hosting over a million refugees from South Sudan. More South Sudan nationals have fled the country and sought refuge in other neighbouring countries.

The South Sudan conflict erupted in December 2013 when a power struggle between President, Salva Kiir, and his vice, Riek Machar, degenerated into brutal clashes between two diverse government armies under command of the two principals in the conflict. The country attained independence from Sudan in 2011.

Kiir and Machar signed a comprehensive peace deal in August 2015 to end the bloody fighting, but in July 2016, the country collapsed into another phase of a bloody conflict fought on tribal lines.