Machar’s deputy calls to reform NTC over failure to advance peace deal

JUBA, MAY 11, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – The deputy chair of the main armed Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Oyet Nathaniel is calling for reforms within the National Transitional Committee (NTC) over lack of progress in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

Speaking during a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Nathaniel who is also the first deputy speaker of the transitional parliament said the NTC has failed to make progress since its formation following the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in September 2018 and called for its reformation.

“The National Transitional Committee has been there since the beginning without progress. They take resources from the government and at the end of the day, they have nothing to show. We want something to be done about NTC,” Nathaniel said.

“If the problem is the institution, then it has to be restructured. If the problem is the people who are working in this institution, then they should be reshuffled.

“They cannot be left to fail the national and especially on particular important matters of the peace agreement,” he added.

The government of President Salva Kiir signed a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement in September 2018 with various rebel groups including the main armed opposition SPLM-IO to end a deadly civil war that had killed nearly half a million people.

The agreement negotiated by the Sudanese government under the auspices of the IGAD provides for a power-sharing government and reunification of the rival forces in an attempt to create a professional and non-political national army.

But four years after its signing, the parties haven’t delivered on the peace promises beyond formation of the unity government.

The parties have graduated a part of the unified forces from training, but they haven’t yet deployed them as the government has blamed the delay on lack of weapons.

The government has also blamed international sanctions for lack of weapons, although international organizations and local civil society watchdogs suggest that there are more weapons in South Sudan than its population.