August 14th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which mediated South Sudan’s peace agreement has invited parties to the revitalized peace agreement to Addis Ababa for consultative meeting saying no progress on implementation of pre-transitional activities.
The government and several opposition groups signed in September last year a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement in Addis Ababa following several months of tough negotiation between rival delegates in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
According to the agreement, a unity government was supposed to be formed in May but delay in implementation of pre-transitional activities forced the parties to postpone the government formation for a November dateline.
As three months have already gone, there is no concrete progress made on the ground with lack of funds mainly blamed as government failed to avail all the $100 million pledge it made for the implementation of the pre-transitional activities.
In a statement issued on Tuesday however, the IGAD Council of Ministers said there is lack of progress in the implementation of the pre-transitional activities as the three months of the six-month period has already passed.
“Three months have already elapsed since the Pre-Transitional Period of the Peace Process for South Sudan was extended by 6 months until November 2019. However, there is lack of progress in implementing the outstanding and critical issues, to yet again meet the deadline for the accomplishment of the Pre-Transitional Period,” a statement signed by the Chair of IGAD Council of Ministers, Gedu Andargachew, who is also the Ethiopian foreign minister partly read.
“Hence, in my capacity as the current Chair of IGAD Council of Ministers I would like to invite all Parties to the Agreement to attend the consultation meeting that will take place in the presence of representatives of IGAD member states on the 21 of August 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,” the statement added.
Each party would be composed of three delegates to the mid-August meeting.
