Day: October 14, 2021

A civil society body has strongly condemned the attempted assassination of South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State Information minister, William Baiki, urging state authorities to hold accountable those who carried out the attack.

Baiki narrowly escaped death when armed men allegedly attacked him at his residence in the state capital, Yambio on Monday night. A suspect attacker was apprehended and handed over to police.

“Community Empowerment for Progress Organization strongly condemns the unfortunate incident involving the minister. This is an unacceptable act and state authorities should hold perpetrators of the attack accountable,” CEPO’s Executive Director, Edmund Yakani said Tuesday.

He attributed the attack on the official to power struggles among the political elites in the state.

Yakani decried the escalation of political violence in Tambura and Yambio counties of Western Equatoria State, urging the country’s top leadership to urgently intervene into the matter.

“Currently, a big population of the communities in Tambura are displaced while targeted killings of political leaders continue in Yambio. The national government needs to demonstrate its responsibility in order to make peace prevail in the country,” he stressed.

The activist appealed to political elites in the state to desist from using violence to retain power.

According to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), the violence in and around Tambura County has forced more than 40,000 of the population to flee their homes.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The interim leader of the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) splinter group, General Simon Dual Gatwech has clarified that his group is not after positions, but pushing for full implementation of the security agreements.

“We are not after positions. The Kit Gwang Declaration is advocating for the honest implementation of Chapter II: Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements. It is the contention of the SPLM-IO (Kit Gwang) that the Security Arrangements are central to political stability in our nascent Republic. The Kit Gwang Declaration, through implementation of Security Arrangements, aspires to restore the dignity of the South Sudanese peoples by addressing the problem of political violence in our land”, the group said in a statement released ahead of scheduled talks with South Sudan government.

It called on the peoples of South Sudan, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Troika and all the stakeholders in the peace agreement, to recognize the position of his group, saying it is a recommitment to an honest implementation of the agreement for peace to prevail in South Sudan.

“We are not after government positions perse; we are searching for genuine peace. We further call on friends of South Sudan to not give up on us at this critical period”, the statement Sudan Tribune obtained reads in part.

According to Gatwech, the memories of the deadly civil wars that erupted in the country in December 2013 and July 2016 are still too fresh to be ignored.

“The traumatic effects of 15th December 2013, and the “dog fight” at J1 (State House) on the 8th of July 2016, are still fresh in the collective psyche of our displaced civil population. This is why we must prioritize and expedite the implementation of Chapter II: Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements – commonly referred to as Security Arrangements – and other key provisions of the Arrangement that have been neglected by the Juba Group. We must end the perennial violence that has plagued our politics through the sincere implementation of the negotiated settlement – the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS),” argued Gatwech.

He added, “It is only after this that the parties to the Agreement can be able to address all matters pertaining to peace as stipulated in that book”.

Separately, Mabior Garang de Mabior, a member of the splinter faction of the armed opposition claimed forces loyal to the First Vice President Riek Machar were on rampage in Upper Nile State, despite recent calls for dialogue.

“The forces loyal to the FVP (First Vice President) are still on rampage, marauding through Greater Upper Nile, in a futile attempt to resolve the split in the SPLA/SPLM (IO) using military violence. We call on CTSAMVM to investigate this series of attacks by the SPLM-IO Juba in violation of the resolutions of the 73rd Extra Ordinary Session of the IGAD Council of Ministers,” he wrote on Facebook.

The communique, Mabior said, called for peaceful resolution of the split in the SPLM-IO.

“The Kit Gwang Declaration is for peace and our negotiating position is Security Arrangements, we are categorically anti-war”, he further stressed.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) led by Minni Minnawi refused to meet with the ruling coalition and requested the partial dissolution of the cabinet and the Sovereign Council.

Minnawi and Gibril Ibrahim leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) besides some small factions signatory of the Juba peace agreement call to review the positions allocated to the political parties and civil society groups saying they took a large number of portfolios in the transitional authority.

The military component which has frozen meetings of the joint institutions including the Sovereign Council also repeats the same call as they are backed by a tribal component in eastern Sudan that blocks roads and closed the seaports.

The ruling FFC coalition accepted Hamdok calls to end the ongoing power struggle between them and expressed willingness to discuss the political crisis with the other parties.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok called for a meeting between the FFC factions but the Minnawi-led group declined to meet the ruling coalition and put forward several demands including the dissolution of the cabinet, the civilian component at the Sovereign Council, the state governors, and the transitional government partners council.

Minnawi further underscored that the power-sharing review should take place without prejudice to the shares given to the armed groups in accordance with the Juba Peace Agreement.

The Juba agreement granted the signatory groups 25% of the transitional authority institutions and 75 seats in the would-be formed transitional parliament.

In the same vein, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Head of the Sovereign Council on Wednesday repeated calls to reach a national consensus and to form a broad-based government.

Al-Burhan who is touring the different divisions of the army also reiterated pledges to oversee and protect the democratic transition.

The FFC forces reject al-Burhan statements about “overseeing” the transition saying he is just a partner but not the guardian of the transition as he claims.

FFC’s response

Yasir Arman, a leading member of the ruling coalition and political adviser to the Prime Minister posted a short statement on his Facebook page asking what forces they mean when they speak about broadening the ruling coalition and to do what?

“The main question to understand this call remains what is meant by “broadening” and what are the forces to be included, are they qualified people and technocrats versus politicians and partisans? Or the forces of revolution versus the remnants?”

Speaking about the purpose of this call he further said: “Does it mean to implement the agenda of the December Revolution or to implement the agenda of the remnants? The inclusion of the forces of the revolution and the implementation of its agenda is required. As for the inclusion of the remnants, it is rejected, and the people will reject it”.

On the other hand, the Secretary-General of the National Umma Party Wathiq al-Brair suggested dissolving the Sovereign Council and replacing its current members with independent civilian and military.

He also called for the dissolution of the cabinet and to appoint a government of technocrats to achieve three tasks: security and stability, addressing the economic situation, and preparing for free and fair elections in January 2024.

The NUP Secretary-General also suggested dismissing all regional and state governors and appointing independent governors until the elections. Also, he called for dissolving all national committees and commissions and appointing national figures.

Al-Brair was keen to underline that these propositions express his personnel point of view. However, several sources in the FFC say they support this position.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan has set November 1 as the day on which members of the unified forces will be graduated from various training camps.

The military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said the exercise, expected to be the last leg in the process, will be preceded by dispatching a team of military experts to conduct screening of the forces in various training centers across the country.

He did, however, divulged further details on the number of forces expected to be graduated from various camps, though previous record shows about 53,000 forces drawn from stakeholders South Sudan People’s Defense Forces, the opposition forces under the command of the first vice president Riek Machar and forces representing the umbrella of the opposition alliance.

They are expected to graduate from various camps and will include members of the army, police, and national security, fire brigade and wildlife.

It remains unclear whether announcement would hold since several announcements have never materialized. The authorities have always attributed repeated delay to graduate the forces “lack of funds”.

Members of the civil society organizations and other political leaders attributed the cause to “lack of political will”, citing the amount of 100 million of dollars which government announced in 2019 to have given to members the National Transitional Committee. The forces have been at the training camps since 2019.

The Joint Defense Board (JDB), the body mandated to exercise command and control over the necessary unified forces, announced it has resolved to start the screening of forces at the training camps next week, paving way to graduation.

The decision of the board was arrived at a meeting attended by top commands of the various peace parties at the military headquarters in Bilpam, located north of capital Juba. The board announced that three joint screening teams will be formed and dispatched to the three regions of Bahr El Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile to start the screening process prior to graduation.

The official spokesperson of government forces confirmed the decision of the JDB, pointing to the necessity of the process before graduation takes place.

“The Joint Defense Board met on Monday and resolved that those forces will have to be screened first and once we are done, it would be followed by unification”, he said, adding, “I have repeatedly said this is the last leg of the entire process and I’m very sure it will take place by the first week of November.”

Gen Lul asked members of the public to exercise patience, saying certain things had caused the delays but which the authorities have now given priority so that graduation is carried out without further delay.

The formation of a unified army in South Sudan is a cornerstone of the 2018 peace agreement. The soldiers have been undergoing training since late 2019.

Source: Sudan Tribune