January 10th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC) tasked to carry out preparations for the transitional period needs a budget totaling $114 million to carry out its activities, a South Sudan minister said on Thursday.
The NPTC is a body set up by South Sudan’s parties in September last year to carry out preparations for the transitional period due to commence in May this year.
However, owing to lack of funds and reluctance by key South Sudan major donors such as the United States, the committee has not yet done half of its supposed work while the eight-month pre-transitional period has entered its fourth month ticking towards its end.
Speaking to the press in the capital Juba on Thursday, South Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs, Martin Elia Lomoro, said the committee need a budget totaling 114 million United States dollars to fully perform its duty.
“Roughly, we were looking at somewhere around 114 million US dollars based on an eight-month draft budget that was submitted by the secretariat,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Lomoro who said the money would be used by the pre-transitional body to buy buy tents, food, and medicines appealed to donors saying they can also donate in term of items which are needed by the committee.
“I think if countries are generous and honest, and they really mean to help us. They can reduce this budget substantially by providing tents, food materials and medicines are the most costly,” he added.
Under regional and international pressure, South Sudan President, Salva Kiir and opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon along other opposition groups signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement designed to end the war.
The signing took place in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa following months of intense negotiations in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in a talks hosted by the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir where the parties only had August 5th to reach a preliminary deal before the final signing of the agreement on September.
