January 28th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has pardoned holdout opposition leaders who recently signed an agreement with the government in Rome to recommit to a 2017 ceasefire pact.
Kiir’s government and several opposition groups signed a revitalized peace agreement last year to end the six-year-old civil war which has killed and displaced a large portion of the country’s 12-million population.
However, some opposition groups are not part of the revitalized peace agreement. They include the South Sudan United Front let by Gen. Paul Malong Awan, Real-SPLM led by Pagan Amum and National Salvation Front led by Gen. Thomas Cirilo Swaka.
They said the revitalized peace agreement needs to be reopened for renegotiation because the root causes of the conflict need to be addressed before a deal could be signed.
However, early this month, the group signed a deal with the government to recommit to the 2017 ceasefire agreement. They negotiated with Kiir’s delegation led envoy Barnaba Marial Benjamin under the umbrella of South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance or SSOMA.
In a republican order read on the state-run SSBC on Tuesday evening, Kiir granted a general amnesty to all the leaders of the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA).
