S. Sudan’s Kiir snubs IGAD envoy over pre-forum process
December 10, 2017 (JUBA) – South Sudan president Salva Kiir has written a letter to the chairperson of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), seeking ways to end the ongoing civil war, which has displaced more than two million people.
President Kiir, in a 6 December 6 letter, openly protested the endorsement of the pre-forum consultation report IGAD’s special envoy, which excluded the coalition government’s participation.
“I write to register my sincere disappointment, on behalf of the transitional government of national unity, on the IGAD council of ministers sideline meeting of the 28 November 2017, held in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, in which progress towards the conduct of the high-level Revitalization was discussed in absence of South Sudan”, the letter reads in part.
The South Sudanese leader claimed the report represented views of the country’s former detainees and other opposition at the expense of the government, ignored government views as well as proposals.
“The report in the main epitomizes views of the FDS (former detainees) and other opposition groups. The TGONU (Transitional Government of National Unity) only presented to the IGAD council of ministers, during its visit to Juba from 13- 14 November 2017, a combination of elucidations and preliminary proposals. The response of the IGAD to the TGONU, as submitted by Mr Ismail Waise, was surficial, completely failing to satisfactorily respond to the questions advanced by TGONU”, Kiir wrote in a letter extended to Sudan Tribune.
An emotional charged Kiir accused IGAD’s special envoy of failing to engage the coalition government on its views as well as position.
Kiir said the South Sudan’s coalition government does not accept the pre-forum report by Waise, which was also approved by the IGAD council of ministers.
In June, a summit of IGAD heads of state and government decided to convene a meeting of the signatories of the South Sudan peace agreement to discuss ways to revitalize the peace implementation. During the June summit, it was agreed that all groups be included in the discussion aimed at restoring a permanent ceasefire.
IGAD unveiled the timetable for the revitalization forum with South Sudanese leaders and the citizens, which ended on 17 October.
The South Sudanese government earlier warned that the revitalization forum by the regional bloc, which mediated the 2015 peace deal, should not be another platform for negotiations of the peace accord between the two factions to the conflict.
Over a million people have fled South Sudan since conflict erupted in December 2013 when President Kiir sacked Machar from the vice-presidency. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in South Sudan’s worst violence since it seceded from Sudan in July 2011.
(ST)