Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta (left), Uganda's Yoweri Museveni
(right) and Salva Kiir of South Sudan (centre). Uganda and Kenya are
accused of prolonging South Sudan civil war. FILE PHOTO | PPU
Even as parties prepare for the third phase of the South Sudan
revitalisation programme later this month, concerns linger over the
impartiality of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
countries in brokering talks with President Salva Kiir.
Most
of the groups in the talks — South Sudan youth organisations and the
Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by Riek
Machar, opposition parties and the civil society — have been pushing for
the talks to be removed from Igad, arguing it’s malleable to President
Kiir.
Gabriel Dak, a member of the Senior Youth of
South Sudan lobby group, said they have been lobbying for the peace
talks to be handed over to the African Union and the United Nations.
Taking sides?
Key Igad partner states — Kenya and Uganda — are being perceived to have taken President Kiir’s side.
The
UN special advisor for prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, and
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, have specifically singled out Kenya
and Uganda for fuelling the conflict by facilitating the flow of arms to
South Sudan.
“Violence is likely to continue throughout South Sudan in part
because some neighbouring countries are helping to arm government
forces,” said Mr Guterres in a statement to the UN Security Council on
February 27.
However, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary of Foreign Affairs Monica Juma termed the allegations unfortunate and misguided.
“The
situation in South Sudan remains extremely complex and such unhelpful
statements must be avoided at this critical time in pursuit of a
credible and all-inclusive peace process. Kenya and neighbouring
countries have had their patience tested to the limit, but have
continued to soldier on without showing any signs of fatigue,” said Dr
Juma.
The first phase of the Igad revitalisation
programme was convened from February 5 to 16 to revisit the collapsed
2015 peace agreement with the objective of restoring a permanent
ceasefire; incorporate all armed and unarmed interest groups and develop
a realistic timeline and implementation schedule towards democratic
elections at the end of the transitional period in October.
The
three key outstanding issues that must be agreed on in the next round
of talks are security arrangements to enforce the cessation of
hostilities agreement signed in December last year; the restructuring of
the transitional government and the power-sharing percentages.
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