November 22nd 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan holdout opposition groups said in a communique issued on Wednesday following a meeting in Rome, Italy, that the conflict in the country is political in nature.
Many international observers brand the six-year-old civil conflict in the world’s youngest nation as ethnic as the army has been divided along ethnic lines.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after members of a government militia group known as Mathiang Anyoor slaughtered thousands of Nuer civilians in the country’s capital Juba.
The killing sparked anger and protest among Nuer generals serving in the South Sudanese army, SPLA, triggering civil war. The conflict has since fitted Dinka members of the army who supports President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against their Nuer counterparts supporting ex-vice president Dr. Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.
In a communique issued on Wednesday following a meeting from 18th – 20th of November in Rome, South Sudan Opposition Movements (SSOM) said it was “convinced that the conflict in South Sudan is political in nature and requires a political solution through constructive and genuine dialogue.”
The communique also welcomed “the IGAD Council of Ministers resolution on South Sudan of 10th November, 2019, that direct the special envoy of South Sudan to engage with the non-signatories of the R-ARCSS.”
They said that the alliance would “re-engage with the stakeholders to the R-ARCSS through political dialogue and negotiation to contribute to the overall peace process that addresses the root causes of the conflict.”
