February 10th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – A senior opposition official of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has said the implementation of the revitalized peace deal is very slow.
The SPLM-IO, alongside other opposition groups, in September last year signed a revitalized peace agreement with the government to end the five-year old conflict.
According to the agreement, pre-transitional activities should be carried our within a eight-month pre-transitional period.
These preparations includes the determination of the borders and number of states, merging of forces and the establishment of one national army. However, none of these preparations is done and it is already the fifth month of the pre-transitional period.
Speaking to the Nyamilepedia on Friday, senior SPLM-IO official and the group’s former Sobat state governor, Duer Tut Duer, said the implementation of the agreement is slow.
“Until today the 8th of February 2019, the number of States is not yet determined, training and deployment of forces not yet made and major provisions of security arrangements during pre-transitional period are yet to be made, the implementation of provision on cantonment areas is manipulated,” he said.
“From my point of view the implementation is very slow, manipulative and not sincere,” he added.
The opposition official further urged IGAD to exert much effort saying the failure of the regional body to achieve peace and to force parties lives up to the agreement led to the collapse of a 2015 peace deal.
“My message to IGAD is that, the failure of IGAD and the international community to facilitate the implementation of security arrangements to it’s letter and spirit in 2016 caused the return to War on the 8th of July 2016,” he added.
He called on the holdout opposition groups including NAS to join the peace implementation saying the “people of South Sudan want peace, they are for peace and not ready to return to square one which is not far behind.”
