IGAD to restore permanent cease fire in South Sudan
August 5, 2017 (JUBA) – The newly appointed Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) special envoy to South Sudan, Ismail Wais has vowed to restore a permanent ceasefire in South Sudan.
The ceasefire, according to a statement extended Sudan Tribune, is to be achieved through the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF).
The HLRF, it says, aims to bring together Parties to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) and other stakeholders including estranged groups to discuss concrete measures of restoring the permanent ceasefire.
“During the two-day mission, the special envoy met with key officials from the Transitional Government of National Unity, the UN Mission in South Sudan and the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission,” it reads.
The HLRF is also expected to develop a revised and realistic timeline and implementation schedule towards a democratic election at the end of the transition period.
The convening of the HLRF was authorized by the extraordinary summit of IGAD Heads of State and Government, which was held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on 12 June 2017.
“The Summit mandated the IGAD Council of Ministers to urgently facilitate the convening of the Forum,” further noted the statement.
As such, however, the IGAD Council held two extraordinary sessions on 2 and 24 July 2017 in Addis Ababa and Juba respectively, which led to the eventual convening of the forum due next month.
Last month, regional leaders at a summit meeting held in Addis Ababa called for the revitalization of the 2015 South Sudan peace accord, saying the agreement was the only solution to end its civil war.
IGAD is an eight-member economic bloc that brings together Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.
Over a million people have fled South Sudan since conflict erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir sacked Riek Machar from the vice-presidency. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in South Sudan’s worst ever violence since it seceded from Sudan in 2011.
(ST)
