South Sudan renews commitment to restore permanent ceasefire

October 18, 2017 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese government has renewed its earlier commitment to restore a permanent ceasefire in the war-torn nation. President Salva Kiir addresses the nation from the State House on September 15, 2015, in Juba (Photo AFP ......

October 18, 2017 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese government has renewed its earlier commitment to restore a permanent ceasefire in the war-torn nation.

The foreign affairs spokesperson, Mawien Makol said government remains committed to the restoration of permanent ceasefire amid ongoing High-Level Revitalization consultation by members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

"The government is fully committed to restoration of the permanent ceasefire; we are also committed to implementation of the 2015 peace agreement,” he said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Under-Secretary General of Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday, that the South Sudan’s government was not fully committed to the IGAD-led peace revitalization process to end its civil war.

The political will to halt military operations and peaceful negotiations, he said, were necessary to achieve sustainable peace in war-torn South Sudan.

But Makol insisted that the accusations labeled against the Juba government were “unfair”, adding, “We are doing what we can on this revitalization process”.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has pledged his unconditional support to the peace revitalization forum, saying a national dialogue was the only way to end the ongoing civil war in the world’s youngest nation.

In June, a summit of IGAD heads of state and government decided that meeting of the signatories of the South Sudan peace agreement to discuss ways to revitalize the peace implementation be convened. At the summit, it was agreed that all groups be included in the discussion aimed at restoring a permanent ceasefire.

The South Sudanese government warned that the revitalization forum by IGAD, the regional bloc which mediated the 2015 peace accord, should not be another platform for negotiations of the peace accord between the two factions to the conflict.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders following months of intense negotiations led to the formation of a transitional national unity government in April 2016, but this again faltered after renewed violence broke out in July 2016.

Over a million people have fled South Sudan since conflict erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir sacked Machar from the vice-presidency. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in South Sudan’s worst ever violence since it seceded from Sudan in July 2011.

(ST)