Machar tells Kiir to fund peace deal, resolve Abyei dispute with Sudan

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader and the country’s First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, is telling President Salva Kiir Mayardit to establish funding for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement the two men signed to end the devastating seven-year-old conflict which has killed almost half a million people in the world’s youngest country.

The two men have been struggling to implement the 2018 peace deal dubbed as ‘Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS)” which they signed under a regional and international pressure two years ago.

In a communiqué on Wednesday, the SPLM-IO under Machar urged Kiir “to establish a fund for the peace implementation, and urges the government to make direct allocations from oil and non-oil revenue to such fund and be independently managed.”

The main armed opposition group also urged the government that they are part in to “expeditiously convene an international donor conference to raise funds to support the implementation of the Agreement.”

While urging the communiqué said it “appreciates the non-lethal military assistance provided by the Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt and China for the Necessary Unified Forces in the training centers and the cantonment sites,” it also urged the government of President Salva Kiir to resolve the dispute between South Sudan and Sudan over Abyei region whose status has not yet been decided owing to some differences between the two countries.