The office of the president has asked the Ugandan president to explain to the world what he meant by “South Sudanese are blue people.”
Speaking on Monday at the 35th NRM Victory Anniversary in Kampala, President Yoweri Museveni said that South Sudanese are actually not black, blue people.
“But the politics of Identity, if you are Arab but some other people are not Arabs. When you look at South Sudanese, they are not black they are actually blue,” Museveni said as the crowd laugh.
The statement has angered South Sudanese online, with many describing it as derogatory.
“President Yoweri Museveni himself knows that there are only the white, the Asian, and the black people. We never heard of blue people. President Museveni has to explain to the world,” said Ateny Wek, presidential spokesperson.
This is not the first time the leader has made such remarks.
Early this month, while addressing his supporters in Yumbe District, Museveni labeled South Sudan as a “laboratory of bad leadership”.