The South Sudan peal deal monitoring team says the implementation of the agreement is still slow and many of critical tasks are still outstanding months to the deadline.
In a briefing to the Council of Ministers of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity on Friday April 8, Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation boss said although commendable progress has been made towards implementation of some provisions of the R-ARCSS, overall, the process is lagging behind.
Interim RJMEC chairman Major General Charles Tai Gituai’s briefing is part of the team’s mandate to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the South Sudan peace agreement, and the mandate and tasks of the RTGoNU, including the adherence of the parties to the agreed timelines and implementation schedule.
The Council was chaired by President Salva Kiir, attended by First Vice President Dr Riek Machar and the other four Vice Presidents.
With regards to the Transitional Security Arrangements, the RJMEC chairman said it it was “encouraging” that an agreement was reached on Unified Command of Forces.
He, however, appealed to the Council “to consider that a budget be dedicated, and necessary resources availed to the Joint Defense Board and the other Security Mechanisms to complete their assigned tasks.”
“Finally on this subject, the lack of funding to the DDR Commission remains of great concern. I would like to appeal to this Council to consider DDR as an integral component of the unification of forces,” Gituai said
Given that the Transitional Period is due to expire in February 2023, one of Maj Gen Gituai’s key recommendations to the Council is to “develop a clear strategy with timelines for the implementation of the critical outstanding tasks of the agreement.”
The Council of Ministers meeting also received a report on the five-day post-conflict seminar, which was organised by RJMEC in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, which began on November 29, 2021, in Kigali, Rwanda.
It was attended by 25 high-ranking political and military leaders and sought to identify challenges and opportunities for post-conflict peace-building, reconstruction, and stabilisation in South Sudan.
IGAD boss urges South Sudan leaders to respect forces unification deal, implement it fully
