NAS’s Cirilo says new government will not bring peace in South Sudan
March 7, 2020 (JUBA) – Thomas Cirilo the head of the National Salvation Front (NAS) has cautioned South Sudanese that the formation of the transitional government will not bring peace in the country.
“The National Salvation Front would like to caution the people of South Sudan on this historic day that the recent political development in the country is not the dawn of peace in South Sudan. I urge you to be vigilant and not to allow yourselves to be deceived,” he said in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune.
The opposition leader who rejected the revitalized peace agreement of 12 September 2018 described what is taking place in Juba nowadays as a distribution of positions among the political elite in “total disregard” to the aspirations of the people.
“The R-TGONU cannot address state failures and effect reforms when it is the main beneficiary of these failures,” he stressed.
He further pointed out that a sustainable peace can only be effective when the root causes of the conflict are addressed in an credible and inclusive process.
A genuine peace requires to address “the issues of governance, security sector establishment, ethnic domination, justice and accountability, management of the people’s resources, and land issues among others,” he said.
NAS and its allied holdout groups in the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) have engaged peace talks with the government in a process mediated this time by the religious community of Sant’Egidio.
The government and SSOMA signed the Declaration on the Peace Process in South Sudan on 12 January 2020; and Rome Resolution on Monitoring and Verification of CoHA 2017 on 13th February 2020.
The parties are expected to resume talks after the formation of the revitalized transitional government of national unity.
(ST)