Kiir, Machar told to show political will to win Troika’s support

JUBA – President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny should show political will in the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement in a bid to win full support of the Troika countries, an activist has said.

Last week, the Troika countries refused the extension of the transitional period on the basis that the people of South Sudan are not supporting it and some stakeholders were not consulted on the extension of the transitional period.

But President Kiir and Machar anyway declared that the transitional period which begun in 2020 has been extended for two more years. They argue that the remaining period of the current transitional period is not enough for implementation of the pending tasks.

In a statement, Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment and Progress Organization (CEPO) said that that there is need for political will to be demonstrated by the parties in order to win the support of the powerful South Sudan friends.

“CEPO feels that Troika group want to see real and practical demonstration of political and financial actions demonstrated by South Sudan parties signatories to the R-ARCSS after the adoption of the roadmap,” Yakani said.

“It is of benefit for the parties not to rush to R-JMEC with the roadmap because they have enough time to do some remarkable actions if they have the political will to regain the trust of the Troika group,” Yakani added.

He said that key actions the parties can take include “the graduation of the unification forces, allocation of national funds in transparent manner for funding the peace, sorting the current political difference that lead to SPLM-IO parliament boycott, opening of political and civic space, enactment of the legislations amendment per the text from National Constitution Amendment Committee (NCAC) and change of political attitudes.”

Yakani stressed that “without tangible indicators it is not easy for the Troika group to support the peace process.”

Yakani further said that “majority of the party members in various government responsibilities lack accurate knowledge about the interpretation of the peace agreement provisions.

“For example the current parliament acts with the spirit and political responsibility of protecting and promoting the genuine implementation of the R-ARCSS provisions with adding any new text on any document from the NCAC or any other document from the mechanisms tasked by the R-ARCSS.”