May 7, 2020 (Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar’s office has denied he and his counterpart I’m the peace process, President Salva Kiir, have both abandoned the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement to focus on the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is not true that leaders and Parties to the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCiSS) have abandoned the implementation of the Agreement and only focused on Covid-19 disease. The two are being tackled concurrently,” Machar’s office said.
This comes after the parties failed to agree on the allocation of state governors which is now a sticky issue risking IGAD action. The parties have agreed on the number allocated to each party, but they have not agreed as to which state go to who.
Machar’s office said the presidency was working to designate which party take which state saying it was likely that a decision would be reached soon.
“The Presidency has been trying to resolve the states issues in order to form the States governments and reconstitute the national legislature in accordance with the Peace Agreement,” it said.
“Although an agreement has been reached on the allocation of the 10 States in terms of numbers as to how many go to which Party, the Presidency is yet to agree on which state(s) go to which Party.
“R-TGoNU has been also working as Clusters, and the Governance Cluster has already recommended to the Council of Ministers for resolution the Matrix for the implementation of the R-ARCiSS. Other four Clusters on Economy, Services, Infrastructure, and Gender and Social Welfare have been equally working on issues pertaining to their respective Clusters.
“Established Mechanisms including in the Security Sector have been working on the implementation of relevant respective provisions of the Agreement, such as the transitional security arrangements, etc.
“However, Covid-19 disease has also imposed itself as a priority among priorities! It is a threat to reckon with. The response to the disease in combating it also automatically affects many aspects in the implementation of the R-ARCiSS.
“South Sudan is currently in a partial lockdown due to the Coronavirus. For instance, the banning of movement between states and to Juba, and vice versa, and the social distancing guidelines, etc., have adversely affected practical implementation of some aspects of the Peace Agreement.”
