The leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), Lam Akol, has said South Sudan must work towards wrapping up the 2018 revitalised peace agreement and, if possible, have a roundtable conference on sticky issues.
In his new year’s message, seen by The City Review, Akol argued that the leaders had delayed the process of transition despite having a lengthy period to make things right. He added that it was imperative to finish the gray areas and ensure the country’s electoral process. “Judicial reform, the constitution-making process, economic advancement, the unification of forces, the enactment of laws of a political and security nature, and the return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their ancestral homes are still underway,” he noted, arguing that no substantive reforms had been carried out save for appointments.
“Most disturbingly, the level of communal violence across the country has risen to the point of threatening the only tangible achievement of the peace agreement, which is the fragile ceasefire between the parties to the revitalised agreement.” The parties to the peace agreement came up with a 24-month extension of the transitional period in August 2022. And while the NDM leader seems not to be challenging the move, he argued that this extension should be used properly to avert any possibility of time wastage. He suggested that there should be an organ to monitor how the parties are aligning with the timelines of the roadmap.
“There is a need to form a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to follow up on the implementation of the roadmap. The mechanism should report monthly to the leaders of the parties to the agreement on the activities not implemented during that period and suggest ways to expedite implementation. “This is the only way to oblige the parties to abide by their obligations under the new plan,” he noted.
He called on the government to “seize the opportunity to engage the non-signatories of the revitalised agreement in serious dialogue to achieve peace.”
He added, “And since the agreement that they did not like is nearing its end, it is necessary that we discuss with them in a roundtable conference the way forward so that we can enter together the new phase as the political leaders of the country united, which gives hope that real peace will prevail throughout southern Sudan.”
Lam Akol said the above points were not taken into consideration when the parties sat down to deliberate on the roadmap. He alleged that his party had tried to reach out to the peace partners to table the proposals for an inclusive approach to the transition, but it never sailed through as such requests were turned down.
“Since then, the parties have ignored the NDM’s call plan and proceeded to pave the way for an extension. In August, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission endorsed, with a few abstentions, the plan, and Parliament recently endorsed it in just one session”.
“Some groups rejecting the revitalized agreement made a mistake when they considered the call for a round-table conference as a means to isolate the government politically and began to incite in this direction, and they missed an opportunity to pressure the government to attend the round-table conference that was to discuss the root causes,” he further argued.
While the government has missed some crucial deadlines on the roadmap, such as the deployment of the first batch of the unified forces and the graduation of the next phase, the parliament has had a busy schedule ratifying bills. Before the parliamentary recess, President Salva Kiir signed the permanent constitution-making process bill that will pave the way for the law-making process.
