Sudan conflict undermining South Sudan peace implementation: official
May 23, 2023 (JUBA)- An official has expressed concern that the conflict in Sudan, which began in April, is diverting attention from implementing the peace agreement in South Sudan.
“Yes, as far as the situation in Sudan is concerned, the implementation of the peace agreement here is moving at a snail style,” the official told Sudan Tribune under anonymity.
The signatories were to embark on the second phase of the training of the unified force. They were also to deploy those trained and phased out to areas of deployment, but this did not occur.
Instead of focusing on the pending issues, President Salva Kiir became the focal point for the region to coordinate the efforts on the situation in Sudan”, a presidential source stressed in statements to Sudan Tribune.
In a separate interview on Monday, South Sudan’s acting minister of foreign affairs Deng Dau Malek said that the implementation process was on course, pointing to the meeting held last week between President Kiir and his first vice President Riek Machar to discuss the status of the agreement implementation and how the parties could expedite the nomination of the opposition officials to fill the position of the ministry of interior which has not been filled following the swapping of the Ministry of interior and defence.
Lily Adhieu Martin Manyiel, Press Secretary in the office of the President, admitted in a statement on Monday that there was a deadlock between the President and the first vice president over the issues the two leaders were discussing.
The meeting between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the First Vice President Riek Machar Teny “did not end in deadlock as reported by some media houses,” Manyiel said.
He added that while the two leaders did not agree in the meeting, they agreed to meet later to resolve the disputed issues.
Sudan and Uganda are the guarantors of the 2018 revitalized agreement on resolving the conflict in South Sudan. Sudan is also the chair of the intergovernmental authority on Development (IGAD), a regional bloc that mediated the end to the conflict in South Sudan in which its leadership and Sudanese people played a central role.
(ST)