South Sudan transitional period delayed for 6 months
May 3, 2019 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese peace partners Friday have agreed to postpone the launch of the transitional period for six months to complete the implementation of the pre-transitional tasks.
Also, Juba pledged to provide one hundred million dollars for the implementation of the pending tasks.
Delegations representing the five signatories of the revitalized peace agreement met on 2-3 May in Addis Ababa to discuss the status of the implementation of the pre-transitional tasks and challenges obstructing the process.
“The Parties observed that key Pre-Transitional tasks that are critical for the formation of the Revitalized Government of National Unity such as the cantonment, screening, training, unification and deployment of forces and the determination of the number and boundaries of state are pending,” said the IGAD in a statement released after the end of the meeting.
Therefore, the parties decided to extend the pre-transitional period for six months from 12th of May 2019.
Also, the meeting recommended that the IGAD special envoy and RJMEC “convene a workshop for all the security mechanisms to develop a clear roadmap and implementation schedules for the pending tasks and pending tasks and commits to abide by the roadmap”.
Due to the flagrant delay in the implementation process, there was an agreement by the parties on the need to extend the pre-transitional period. However, there was a difference over the time needed for the extension.
The SSOA spokesperson Stephen Lual Ngor told Sudan Tribune from Addis that the filed a proposal to limit the extension for three months saying it would be enough if the needed money is available.
However, the IGAD officials worked to convince the parties that a six-month extension is reasonable to achieve the key tasks of the pre-transitional period.
The agreement document signed by the Parties will now be submitted to the IGAD Council of Ministers in a meeting that will be held in Juba on 7-8 May.
$ 100M FOR KEY TASKS
During the meeting, the South Sudanese government has pledged to provide 100 million US dollar to ensure the costly implementation of the security arrangements particularly the armies reunification process.
Also, it was disclosed that the government already disbursed ten million dollars during the past six months.
The parties called on the international community to support the implementation of the R-ARCSS, including by mobilizing the requisite resources.
The meeting also addressed a special message to the IGAD countries which showed less interest in the follow-up of the South Sudan peace implementation process.
They called on the “IGAD Heads of State and Government to convene regular face-to-face meetings of the top leadership of the Parties to the R-ARCSS to review progress towards implementation”.
In addition, they urged the “IGAD to engage the partners and friends of South Sudan to secure their full support to the effective implementation of the R-ARCSS, including by regularly convening the RJMEC Partners Forum, to discuss funding and other support to the implementation of the Agreement”.
(ST)