May 26th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – The South Sudan Opposition Alliance, a consortium of 10 South Sudanese armed and non armed opposition groups negotiating a peace agreement with the government of the incumbent South Sudanese president Salva Kiir Mayardiit said they will never sign a peace agreement that does not seek to address the root causes of the South Sudan conflict that broke out of in December 2013 after the SPLA under Kiir killed thousands of ethnic Nuer people.
On Wednesday, peace talks in the neighboring Ethiopian falters and indefinitely adjourned by the regional body after a peace proposal it presented to the warring parties was rejected almost by all of them.
The peace plan seek to establish a power sharing government between dozens of opposition groups and the South Sudanese government of the incumbent president Salva Kiir Mayardiit.
Speaking to the Nyamilepedia on Saturday, Col. Gatkuoth Mut Turoah, one of the delegates of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance said the alliance will rather fight and die than signing peace that does not address the root causes of the conflict
“We rather die in [the] bush then signing shaky peace that doesn’t address the root cause of the fighting,” he said.
The opposition politician added that the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) is not fighting for position but for the root cause of the conflict to be addressed if there were to be peace between South Sudanese.
“SSOA (South Sudan Opposition Alliance) is not fighting for positions but we want to address the root causes of the fighting and hold into account the perpetrators,” he added.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
A peace agreement signed in August 2015 by President Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and negotiated under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) in presence of Troika and other international observers collapsed in July 2016 following fighting at the presidential palace in Juba “J1” reportedly after President Kiir ordered a failed attempt to arrest the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar.
A peace revitalization process ended without a formal agreement between warring parties last week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa after the regional mediated presented a peace proposal that seek to share power between different warring parties.
