BREAKING: Kiir, Machar agree to extend transitional period

JUBA – South Sudans’ president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and his first deputy, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, have both agreed to extended the transitional period to 2023 to allow for full implementation of the provisions of the revitalized peace agreement, the presidency has announced.

The two men signed the revitalized peace agreement more than two years  ago and according to the implementation matrix, the world’s youngest country should have a unified army by now and a credible elections were to be conducted by end of 2022.

However, lack of funding from the government has delayed implementation of key provisions of the revitalized peace agreement including efforts to unify the rival armies and overall reformation of the entire security sector.

Rival groups led  by Kiir and Machar have exchanged blames for the delay in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement as international and regional community have also blamed lack of political will to implement the deal as provided for in the revitalized peace deal.

In an interview with the Juba-based radio station “Eye Radio”, Ateny Wek Ateny, the presidential press secretary, said all the parties to the revitalized peace agreement have agreed to extended the transitional period to 2023.

“All of them [parties] by consensus have agreed that the end of the transition will be 2023 because the end of the 2022 and beginning of 2023, that is where the election will be run to achieve peace,” the presidential aide said.

The senior government official further denied reports that it may be President Salva Kiir Mayardit who may have taken the decision unilaterally saying: “It is not the Presidency that took the decision but it is the implementation matrix given that they have lost some months in the Pre-Transitional Period.”

“Peace is a process and even the implementation is a process so people should not expect it as a free lunch. It has time in order for it to happen and become mature.”

Advocacy group welcomes move

Separately, the Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani, welcomed the move, and urged the parties to take the suffering of the people of South Sudan serious.

“We as citizens are appealing to you the following; change of political attitudes from this culture of conflicting interpretation of the provision of the agreement to really committing yourself to the real genuine provision of the agreement as enshrined in the document, create a condition of environment for the conduct of the election in South Sudan,” Yakani said.