Nov 28, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s main armed opposition, the SPLM/A-IO, under the leadership of the country’s First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has announced that its delegation to Rome peace talks is preparing to leave by the deadline.
According to the Minister of Petroleum, Hon. Puot Kang Chuol, who spoke on behalf of the group on Friday, Nov 27 2020, the SPLM/A-IO is recommitting to peace talks as part of the RGoNU to ensure that guns are silenced once and for all.
“The last resolution is that we reconfirm our commitment to Rome initiative and the delegation of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) shall be leaving tomorrow to attend the meeting in Rome.” Said Hon. Puot Kanag, the Minister of Petroleum.
Although the SPLM/A-IO has been battling a government embolden former officer in Kajo-Keji since October, the SPLM/A-IO is recommitting to this initiative to bring NAS and others groups, who are still fighting the government on board, to silent the gun.
“Our re-commitment to this initiative is that we want the guns to go silent all over the country,” Kang added.
“We want everybody, all the political forces to be part and parcel of the agreement so that we take our country out of the current that situation that we are in,” he continued.
Speaking to Nyamilepedia on Saturday from Brussels, the official spokesperson of the South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance(SSOMA), Deng Vanang, confirmed that the talks will resume on December 2, 2020.
“The peace talks will resume in Italy on December 2, 2020,” Deng Vanang said.
“We will discuss the re-commitment of the parties to the talks to the Cessation of Hostility Agreement (COHA) signed in 2017 and recommitted to by the parties during the previous round of talks.” He continued.
SSOMA and the government delegations have held talks in Rome previously in September and October; however, the talks produced very little progress.
The October talks ended with the Declaration of Principles between the R.TGONU and SSOMA with hope to continue in November; however, the November talks, which only involved the military wing of SSOMA, ended abruptly after the group accused the SSPDF of attacking their position in the Equatorian region.
