July 30th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The co-chair of South Sudan’s National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC), Gabriel Changson Chang, has said that some activities supposed to be completed before unity government formation may not be ready before the November 12th dateline.
Changson was speaking in the Italian capital Rome during a visit by a NPTC delegation he led that aimed at mobilizing funds for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement signed by the government and opposition groups in September last year.
The agreement provided for a formation of a unity government in May but parties to the agreement reached a consensus in early May in Addis Ababa that the formation of the agreement be postponed for November.
The decision to postpone the government formation was because the NPTC failed to implement most of its activities because of limited funding for the activities for the peace oversight committee.
“The peace agreement we are implementing is a process, and we are going to implement all the tasks that are earmarked for implementation, some will last up to the pre-transitional period, and others will go into the transitional period,” Changson said.
The government in May following the meeting in Addis Ababa pledged to pay $100 million for the NPTC activities but only $10 million has been paid and has already been spent on cantonment of forces.
Senior SPLM-IO official and head of a security committee, Angelina Teny, said the money allocated by the government would not cover the costs needed for the cantonment of forces.
“For you to take big numbers such as one cantonment is supposed to be nearly 4000 [that] is 3,750, $10 million is very little because as you know it is being shared with logistics of those who are working in the mechanisms,” she said.
Teny who is also the the Chairperson of Strategic Defense and Security Review Board appealed to the government of president Salva Kiir Mayardiit to priorities the implementation of the agreement in its budgeting system.
“Our strong appeal to the government is please let us prioritize peace and the implementation of the security [arrangements],” she said.
