January 17th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, has set one condition for participation in the transitional government of national unity provided for in the revitalized peace agreement.
This comes during a press conference held by media and senior officials of the main armed opposition group in Juba on Friday.
South Sudan government and opposition groups including the SPLM-IO signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement in 2018. The agreement provided for the formation of a unity government.
That same agreement set certain conditions for the government to be formed. These include the deployment of necessary unified forces and the determination of the number and boundaries of states.
As a February deadline nears, those pre-transitional actions have not been taken and the government is insisting on the formation of the unity government despite the pending issues.
Speaking during the press conference this morning, SPLM-IO chairperson for security and defense Angelina Teny said her group will participate in the unity government formation unless the government approve the deployment of the Regional Protection Forces (RPF) agreed upon in 2016.
“So we recognize the delay that is why we came up with this roadmap where we say we need to sit down and look at the deployment of UNMISS in some areas until such a time that we can deliver the unified forces for the delivery of the security services,” Angelina Teny, said.
“This is a very big compromise for us. So we are taking a very big risk but in the interest of moving forward, we came up with that proposal and we hope that the government and the Special Envoys and IGAD would see this as the spirit of compromise to allow and enable the formation of the government not to extend it again,” she added.
