IGAD envoy urged to bring holdout groups to South Sudan peace pact
February 4, 2019 (JUBA) – Expressing concern over the continued clashes between the government and holdout groups in Yei River State, the head of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism Monday urged the IGAD mediator to bring them to join the revitalized peace agreement.
The Chairman of CTSAMVM Desta Abiche Ageno made his call in a regular meeting of the mechanism in Juba to discuss the status of the enforcement of the security arrangements, including the ceasefire implementation and recent violations.
“Unfortunately, the Yei area in Central Equatoria continues to be of concern with continuing clashes between the SSPDF and NAS forces of Thomas Cirillo,” Ageno said pointing to the displacement of civilians as result of the recent clashes.
“We continue to urge the office of the IGAD Special Envoy to South Sudan to resolve the issue of NAS (TC) and other armed groups operating in Greater Equatoria and bring them into the revitalized peace agreement,” said the Ethiopian army general.
The non-signatories groups of the South Sudan National Democratic Alliance (SSNDA) met with Ismail Wais on his demand in Addis Ababa on Tuesday 11 December.
He told the SSNDA that he wanted to better understand the reasons that triggered their refusal to sign the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan R-ARCSS”. Since then, no meeting has been held.
The head of CTSAMVM called on the government “to show restraint and desist from any offensive operations”.
The South Sudanese army, SSPDF, was accused by NAS fighters of carrying out several attacks their positions in Central and Western Equatoria during last January and even in the first two days of February.
After mentioning the slow disengagement of troops, Ageno recalled that Juba still did not communicate the result of investigation into the 18 December 2018 incident in Luri in which are members of our Juba MVT were unlawfully detained and abused by personnel from the National Security Service.
“We urge the government to complete its report on Luri soon and acknowledge CTSAMVM’s right to freedom of movement and access,” he said.
(ST)