South Sudan’s armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) has announced its withdrawal from the talks between government and the hold out opposition groups in Kenya.
The negotiating team was a combination of parties to the revitalized peace agreement. it has the representations of the members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) under the overall leadership of the first vice president Riek Machar.
Representatives of the South Sudan opposition alliance, other political parties, and members of the stakeholders spanning civil society organizations and faith-based groups are participating in all various mechanisms and transitional government of national.
These groups are also participating in the negotiation as a delegation of the government in the talks with members of the hold out group, a group of political and military dissident who did not sign the 2018 revitalized peace.
Talks mediated by the Kenyan government since may been underway between the government and the hold out groups, resulting in significant progress. on July 15, the government delegation in which representatives of the SPLM-IO participating in the process and the hold out group signed a deal of eight protocols on thematic issues.
The agreement on eight protocols generated a mixed reaction and the Political Bureau of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) met on July 16, 2024, in Juba and resolved to withdraw from the ongoing Kenyan-mediated peace talks between the government and holdout opposition groups in Nairobi.
“The SPLM/SPLA (I0) Political Bureau met on July 16, 2024, to deliberate on the Protocols of “Tumaini Consensus for Sustainable Peace in South Sudan” that were initiated by the Parties and Stakeholders to the Tumaini Initiative,” the resolution reads in part.
“The initiated Protocols establish alternative institutions, replacing or running in parallel with those in R-ARCSS besides repeating most provisions in R-ARCSS or existing national laws.
The Protocols breach the R-ARCSS and undermine the ongoing peace implementation processes, the statement released by Riek Machar, the first vice president and leader of the SPLM-IO, reads in part.
The statement argues that the Tumaini Initiative was supposedly a mediation forum but the initialed protocols now turned out to be something else.
“The Initiative has arrogated to itself many roles including being a funder, a supervisor, a coordinator, a convener of a donor conference, a fund manager, a monitor of the implementation, a guarantor and a governing authority. Therefore, the “Tumaini Initiative” undermines the sovereignty of the Republic of South Sudan, partly reads.
Machar contends that the proposed National Leadership Council (NLC) whose decisions “shall be final and not subject to approval by the Cabinet or Legislature” usurps the powers of the Presidency, the Council of Ministers, the National Legislature, and the National Security Council.
Sudan Tribune
