The United Nations peacekeeping chief arrived in the capital Juba on Thursday and met senior government officials including First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Vice-President for Gender and Youth Cluster Rebecca Garang De Mabior, and the minister of defense Angelina Teny.
In his meeting with the visiting UN envoy, Teny said South Sudan parties to the revitalized peace agreement need to be assisted so that they are able to rescue the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement which she said has been facing a lot of challenges three years into its signing.
“We are at a juncture where we really need to rescue the peace agreement more than ever,” Teny who is also the chairperson of national committee for security and defense of the SPLM-IO told the visiting UN envoy, according to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan’s press department.
This comes two days after President Salva Kiir Mayardit told senior members of the ruling SPLM party that South Sudan will go for general elections in 2023, but several provisions of the revitalized peace agreement which are supposed to be implemented before the end of the transitional period remains.
The UNMISS said Teny also “pointed out that this Sunday marks the 3rd anniversary of its signing, but elections are still nowhere in sight.”
For her part, Vice-president Rebecca Garang said peace deal has faced a lot of challenges including lack of respect of political leaders for the 35% women power share provided for in the revitalized peace agreement.
“Women are more realistic about issues because they are mothers, they are wives, they are sisters, so they know what a country is, what is a nation. It is a nation without people, the women know about this. Some of the men are concerned about their positions but the women are concerned about the lives of the people,” she told Lacroix.
