Day: October 5, 2021

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Kiir, Gatwech begin direct negotiation as Machar protests

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and the breakaway faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) under the leadership of the former chief of staff, Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual have started direction negotiation despite protests from the armed opposition faction led by Riek Machar.

Machar, who is also South Sudan’s First Vice President in the coalition government, has insisted the meeting between Kiir and Gatwech violates terms of the peace deal which prohibits switching allegiance.

“Accepting direct a negotiation with this group proved what the leadership has been saying all along that one of the parties to the agreement has been encouraging defection from the movement with the view to weakness and undermine implementation of the peace agreement, which is a clear violation of the peace agreement”, a legislator from SPLM-IO party told Sudan Tribune Monday.

The South Sudanese leader, however, says his objective is to implement the September 2018 peace deal to avoid a return to war.

“His excellency the president of the republic is the man of peace. He does not want our people to continue to die. He wants any differences to be resolved amicably by dialogue. This is why he has decided to negotiate with the group of Gen Simon Gatwech Dual and Gen Johnson Olony. He should therefore be commended for accepting to dialogue instead of receiving this wise initiative with scorns and cynical views”, a presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said on Monday.

Presidential adviser Tut Gatluak commended the decision of the president, saying Gen Gatwech Dual has accepted negotiation with the government and is nominating his team to start talk with them

Brig. Gen. William Gatjiath Deng, who speaks for Gatwech’s faction, conformed their group will get into negotiation with the government in negotiations that will be mediated by the Sudanese government.

Deng his boss had been asked by the Sudanese government to prepare a delegation which will negotiate with the delegation of the government. He described the process as good start but were waiting for the date on which negotiation would begin.

Officials with direct knowledge of the process say the government and the mediation team are working to ensure there is a budget for the secretariat that will be organizing the venue, accommodation, transportation and feeding of the delegates.

It, however, remains unclear who is likely to foot the bill as no independent party has emerged to provide funds for the mediation. South Sudan’s president’s office will fund the start of the talks.

Source: Sudan Tribune

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Pentagon Warns Against Deal Bringing Russian Mercenaries to Mali

Add U.S. military officials to the crescendo of voices warning Mali’s interim government against brokering any deal to use mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group to help with security and counterterrorism.

For weeks, U.S. and French officials have publicly tried to dissuade Malian leaders from moving forward with a reported deal that would pay Wagner $10.8 million a month for 1,000 mercenaries to train Mali’s military and provide security for senior officials.

Now, the Pentagon says such a deal could cost Mali in multiple ways.

“Given the Wagner Group’s record, if these reports are true, any role for Russian mercenaries in Mali will likely exacerbate an already fragile and unstable situation,” U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Cindi King told VOA.

King also warned a deal between Mali and the Wagner Group “would complicate the international response in support of the transition government.”

The U.S. had been providing training and other support to Mali as it tries to confront the threat from various terrorist groups, including the Islamic State affiliate IS-Greater Sahara and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, also known as JNIM.

But that support was suspended following the August 2020 coup that saw elements of the Malian military depose the country’s elected leaders.

More recently, France announced this past June that it would bring home some 2,000 counterterrorism forces it had stationed in Mali and neighboring countries.

Mali’s interim government has so far denied a deal with Russia’s Wagner Group is in the offing, but the country’s prime minister told VOA last week that the actions of the U.S., France and others have left the interim government with few choices.

“The security situation keeps deteriorating by the day,” Choguel Maiga told VOA in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“We have to find new partners who can help,” he said. “We can seek partnership either with Russia or with any other country.”

Some Western officials with knowledge of the potential deal between Mali and the Wagner Group have called the potential deployment of the Russian mercenaries “a real concern.”

The officials point to what they describe as a destabilizing impact of about 2,000 Wagner mercenaries in the Central African Republic, where allegations of human rights abuses and exploitation have been rampant.

Russia has denied any abuses by contractors there and has welcomed talk of the potential deal between Mali’s interim government and Wagner.

“They are combating terrorism,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a news conference at the U.N. last week. “And they have turned to a private military company from Russia in connection with the fact that, as I understand, France wants to significantly draw down its military component.”

“We don’t have anything to do with that,” Lavrov said, adding, “at the government level, we are also contributing to providing for military and defense capacities of Mali.”

Many Western governments, though, insist that there is little practical difference between the Kremlin and the exploits of the Wagner Group, run by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin, sometimes called “Putin’s cook” because of his catering company’s work for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is thought to have extensive ties to Russia’s political and military establishments, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The U.S. State Department sanctioned Prigozhin and Wagner back in July 2020, as well as several front companies for the group’s operations in Sudan.

Source: Voice Of America

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Armed clashes in S. Sudan worsens “dire” situation: UN

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) says that it is deeply concerned over clashes this weekend between armed groups in Kacuat area of Warrap State, in which at least 35 people were killed, dozens more injured and hundreds displaced from their homes.

The intercommunal conflict occurred among the Thiik and Luachjang communities of Tonj East and the Lou Paher of Tonj North County on Sunday.

In a statement issued Monday, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutterres said the weekend clashes are linked to cattle raids and revenge attacks.

“This is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation,” he explained.

Haq said UNMISS has set up a temporary base in Marial Lou area of Warrap to help deter violence, despite logistical challenges due to heavy flooding.

“The mission is also supporting reconciliation and peacebuilding efforts, including holding conferences to resolve border and land disputes, tensions over pastures and water points, and the proliferation of small arms among civilians,” he said.

The mission is reportedly also helping to bolster legal institutions in the area, such as mobile courts, to hold those responsible for the violence accountable.

Source: Sudan Tribune