May 19th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Information minister of South Sudan’s Lol state government has resigned citing army misconduct, among other violations, in the state. Mr Omer Eshaq Mohammed who has been serving in the Lol State government in different capacities rendered his resignation on Friday.
“I Omer Eshaq Mohammed, the Minister of Information, Culture Youth and Sport and the spokesperson of the of Lol State hereby resign from my post with immediate effect from 18th May 2018,” Eshaq said in a resignation letter extended to the Nyamilepedia.
The minister said he thought he were appointed to serve the people but realized that the state government was using a divide and rule policy.
He cited the army’s activities such as killings, threatening civilians and looting their properties as the main reason for his resignation beside “Law enforcers and security organs continuously torturing raping girls and women,” and among others.
“Therefore, I have resigned from being part and parcel of this inhuman act,” he added.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
A peace agreement signed in August 2015 by President Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and negotiated under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) in presence of Troika and other international observers collapsed in July 2016 following fighting at the presidential palace in Juba “J1” reportedly after President Kiir ordered a failed attempt to arrest the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar.
Late last year, the IGAD decided to revive the peace agreement and had initiated a peace revival mechanism known as the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) to bring back to life the 2015 peace agreement. Previous rounds of the HLRF has been unsuccessful and the IGAD said it expect the warring parties to negotiate on the last round of talks which commence on Thursday.
The IGAD has given the negotiating parties May 21st as the ultimatum to sign a peace deal. But it is not clear what would be the consequences in case the warring parties do not meet the dateline.
