Envoy urges donors to reconsider decision suspending funding for key peace mechanisms

JUBA – The head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Nicolas Haysom has appealed to the international donors such as the United States of America to reconsider its decision to suspend funding for key peace monitoring mechanisms of the world’s youngest country, saying international support matters in the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement.

Haysom who is also the Special Representative of the Secretary General made the remarks during a briefing on Saturday to the UN Security Council in New York in which he also disclosed that around 8.3 million people in South Sudan are in need of food.

The South African lawyer expressed optimisms over recent consensus in the implementation process of the 2018 peace deal such as the extension of the transitional period for additional twenty-four months and said that the next months in the remaining period would be a test for the parties’ will to implement the agreement.

“The next few months will be a litmus test for the parties in committing to the road map. Still, delays have led to the withdrawal of major donor funding to the monitoring mechanism of Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission,” he told the Council.

Haysom urged the international peace partners to “to reconsider their support,” and urged the government of South Sudan “to ensure sufficient and transparent allocation of national resources towards the road map.”

He went to acknowledged the contribution of the Government to transitional security arrangements, and affirmed “that the support of the international community continues to matter to the process.”