November 17th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – United States lawmakers have called on the Trump Administration to appoint a special envoy for South Sudan where leaders have recently extended a pre-transitional period for another three months after an early six-month extension.
In a letter sent to the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, US Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and John Boozman (R-AR), said there was a need for pressing the parties following delay of a unity government formation
“The Senators highlighted the pressing need to appoint a high-level Special Envoy for South Sudan on the heels of a 100-day extension of the November 12 deadline to form a transitional government,” the senator said in the letter seen by Nyamilepedia.
“With no indication that the country’s warring parties are close to agreement on pivotal areas of dispute. With the deadline looming, there is growing concern about a return to large-scale violence,” they added in the letter.
South Sudan government and opposition groups signed revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement more than a year ago. The parties were required by the agreement to form a unity government in eight months ending last May.
They couldn’t meet the deadline because conditions set forth for the government formation by the agreement were not met and they had to extend the period for six months ending last week to enable for action on the outstanding issues.
However, the parties could not meet the deadline again and had to extend for one-hundred days following a meeting in the Uganda town of Entebbe.
The extension angered the United States. The US however said early that it won’t recognize any government formation that do not include main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny who said he won’t participate after Kiir said he would form the unity government on November 12th despite the absence of critical pre-transitional tasks.
