South Sudanese Peace Parties Urged To Expedite Process

By Simon Deng

Parties to the 2018 revitalized peace deal in South Sudan have been urged to compromise on pending critical issues like the security arrangement to speed up the peace process.

Peter Mayen Majongdit, Chairman of Other Political Parties (OPP) a coalition of 27 opposition parties that signed the peace deal, said that the parties in the coalition government should work in harmony to complete the outstanding tasks.

“You need to be smart, the society must be inclusive there are decisions that the party leadership take and there are also decisions that need to be taken by the general assembly,” said Majongdit who is also the current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs duringOPP retreat meant to brainstorm and discuss reforms in South Sudan on Monday.

The parties in the transitional unity government are yet to conclude security arrangements, security and economic sector reforms, establishing transitional justice and accountability mechanisms.

According to experts, the lack of political will is partly blamed for the existing deadlock on the outstanding critical issues.

Majongdit said that ideological differences among the various parties in the coalition government are also to blame for the slow implementation of the tasks.

“We are a combination of parties with different political ideologies, we do believe as OPP that we will win the future because we believe in the aspirations of the people of South Sudan, we have come a long way and we will move forward,” he said.

The principal parties and signatories to the revitalized peace agreement are the Transitional Government (SPLM) under President SalvaKiir,SPLM-IO of Riek Machar,South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) led by Josephine Lagu, OPP under Peter Mayen Majongdit and SPLM-Former Detainees (SPLM-FDs).