US envoy rushed out of South Sudan camp
JUBA – The Associated Press
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, was evacuated from a U.N. camp for displaced people in South Sudan on Oct. 25 because of a demonstration against President Salva Kiir, witnesses said.
Shortly after Haley left the camp, U.N. security guards fired tear gas to disperse the crowd of more than 100 residents who looted and destroyed the office of a charity operating there, an aid worker at the camp said. The aid worker spoke on condition of anonymity out of safety fears.
Haley, in the middle of a three-country African visit, met earlier on Oct. 25 with Kiir over the country’s long civil war.
The U.N. confirmed the incident with Haley, saying camp residents “became upset that she was not able to meet with them, due to time constraint.”
Frustration has been growing inside and outside South Sudan over the conflict that has killed tens of thousands and created Africa’s largest displacement of civilians since the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
“People are not happy,” said one resident of the U.N. camp, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said camp residents had been waiting to hand Haley a letter with their position on the “current crisis.”
Before her visit to the U.N. camp, Haley said that she hopes South Sudan’s peace process succeeds.
“We can’t let armed conflict be their only choice,” she said on Twitter.
