George Clooney, who in addition to being one of Hollywood’s biggest actors, is also a founder of the international relief organization Not On Our Watch, has penned this concise and informed overview of the deteriorating situation in South Sudan with the Enough Project’s John Prendergast. In the Atlantic piece, they explain how suddenly, “the world’s youngest country, a mere two and a half years old, now stands on the precipice of a new civil war.”
Violence in the young country recently erupted, and now, according to the duo, “The worst-case scenario is rapidly unfolding: political and personal disputes are escalating into an all-out civil war in which certain ethnic groups are increasingly targeted by the others’ forces and the rebels take over the oilfields.” Clooney and Prendergast are raising awareness about the growing conflict in an effort to encourage international intervention and a U.S. diplomatic response: They write that if the UN Security Counsel takes measures to help the people of South Sudan, countless innocent lives can be saved from the violence. And, they argue, that if the U.S. deploys its Special Envoy for the Sudans, mediation efforts between the factions and local church leaders can be jumpstarted …