March 10th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – Talks between the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the holdout opposition alliance, SSNDA led by Gen. Thomas Cirilo Swaka, has failed after Gen. Cirilo reiterated his demand for the renegotiation of the agreement, sources said.
Cirilo is not a signatory to the revitalized peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa last September by President Salva Kiir’s government and opposition groups including the SPLM-IO led by Dr. Riek Machar Teny.
During its 66th extraordinary meeting last year in Addis Ababa, the regional body directed its foreign ministers and the special envoy for South Sudan to engage holdout opposition groups and bring them to the negotiating table in order to join the peace implementation.
IGAD special envoy for South Sudan, Ismail Wais on on March 1st wrote to Gen. Cirilo and former army chief Gen. Paul Malong inviting them for different meetings in Addis Ababa and Nairobi respectively.
Malong accepted the invitation but reiterated his call for the renegotiation of the agreement which did not included him while Cirilo who initially rejected the meeting attended the meeting with the regional body’s envoy on Friday in Addis Ababa.
The meeting however, a source said, was adjourned after failure by the parties involved to agree on demands by Cirilo to renegotiate the agreement and form a federal system of governance during the transitional period based on the three regions of South Sudan.
“He insisted on the establishment of a federal system of governance based on the three regions of our country and that is why the meeting failed to bear fruit. We will meet again next week on 14 of March,” the source who declined to be named told the Nyamilepedia.
Another source also told the Nyamilepedia that Cirilo demanded that a lean parliament and a lean executive be established among other demands. The source added that IGAD envoy has headed to Nairobi for a meeting scheduled with Malong today.
