RJMEC calls on South Sudanese to agree on the best for peace implementation

May 2, 2019 (JUBA) – The acting head of the Joint Monitoring And Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) has advised the South Sudanese parties to agree on the best course of action for the peace implementation process stressing that the pending tasks are the most critical.

The signatories of the revitalized peace agreement in South Sudan Thursday launched a meeting convened by the IGAD to deliberate on the move forward as many key matters of the revitalized peace agreement remain unimplemented nine days before the scheduled date of the government formation.

The opposition groups call to extend the pre-transitional period but the government of President Salva Kiir says determined to not delay the process.

Addressing the opening meeting, Augostino Njoroge appealed to maintain the spirit of trust and confidence nurtured by the parties together over the past months and to take the best decision in the general interest of the nation. However, he noted that they believe that “overall the implementation of the Pre- transitional tasks have fallen short of expectations”.

“Accordingly, I recommended to the leadership of the Parties to take an honest review of our assessment and to agree on the best course of action going forward. I also recommended to the IGAD leadership to be seized of this matter,” he said.

In his speech, Njoroge did not suggest to delay the second phase of the peace implementation process but it was obvious he was backing such a decision.

To make it clear, he underlined that the most critical tasks of the pre-transitional period are pending.

“In RJMEC’s assessment, 59 key tasks were required to be implemented prior to the commencement of the Transitional Period. To-date, 27 out of the 59 have been completed, 17 are ongoing and 15 are pending”.

“Unfortunately, the pending tasks are the most critical and consequential to the implementation of the Agreement,” he stressed.

Besides the armies’ reunification process and boundaries of states, he pointed that the Constitutional Amendment Bill has not been ratified, and the parties did not yet agree on the allocation of ministerial portfolios, among others.

For his part, the Special Envoy Ismail Wais said that “The purpose of convening this meeting is to critically reflect on where we are at to-date with the implementation of the Pre-Transitional tasks”

But also to “address, discuss the mechanism of expediting what still needs to be undertaken going forward including its resource implications,” Wais added.

The outcome of the meeting should be announced on Friday.

(ST)