President Kiir’s Office Mulling a Legal Suit Against Sudan Tribune

The Republic of South Sudan
Office of the President
Press Secretary Office

January 29, 2015

Statement on President Kiir’s visit to Addis Ababa

January 29, 2015 (SSB) —  The Office of the President has learnt with utter dismay the news spread by the Sudantribune electronic media of the allegations that the President was being treated from sudden illness in one of the Ethiopian hospitals in Addis Ababa. According to one Tesfa-Alam Tekle, the purportedly Sudantribune correspondent in Addis Ababa, the President’s meetings were interrupted by his illness.

Notwithstanding all these allegations, the Office of the President would like to inform the public that the information is false, farfetched and wanting. H.E President Salva Kiir Mayardit is in good health and he is going about his normal duties as Head of State and government of the Republic of South Sudan. He has arrived in Addis Ababa on January 27th 2015 and on the same day he had a number of courtesy meetings with foreign diplomats, inter alia; Norwegian Foreign Minister, Kenyan Foreign Minister, Ugandan Foreign Minister and Chines Special Envoy Amb. Zhang Ming.

On 28th January, 2015 from morning until late evening, the President had a meeting with the rebel leader Riek Machar, attended by two Chief Negotiators as well the IGAD peace mediators, supervised by the Ethiopian Primer who is also the Chairman of IGAD. The meeting between the President and the rebel leader was aimed to narrow the gap in the negotiation in an attempt to arrive at finding a peaceful solution to the current political crises in South Sudan.

Today, Thursday, January 29, 2015 President Salva Kiir Mayardit is again having another face-to-face meeting with the rebel leader Riek Machar ahead of the Heads of States and Governments of IGAD Summit which is scheduled to start today at 3:00 pm Ethiopian local time from which the political crisis in South Sudan is on the top of the agenda. The President is also expected to have number of other sideline meetings with his counterparts on the wake of the said IGAD Summit, prior to the 24th Ordinary AU Summit tomorrow Friday, January 30th 2015.

In nutshell, President Salva Kiir is doing his duties trying to restore peace to the people of South Sudan, and so any attempt to wish him illness is futile and desperate to say the least. While we cherish and respect freedom of speech as fundamental human right, we deplore evil-wishing and rumormongering. This is not the first time for Sudantribune to speculate about the health of the President every time when the President is travelling. It has turned out to be a naked lie in many occasions, yet the Sudantribune’s management is not learning. We believe the purpose for establishing Sudantribune was to educate and to inform general public accurately as part of ethics of professional journalism, but this has not been the case.

The Office of the President has discarded previous rumors that emanated from the same electronic media, as we believe the people who have read them are capable of ascertaining the reality from fabricated one. But, this time around and given the damage inflicted on the people of South Sudan through the false reports often published by the Sudantribune that the President was sick, we are considering legal suit against Sudantribune.

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