JUBA – A South Sudan holdout opposition alliance has welcomed a threat by European Union (EU) on Thursday to impose further sanctions on South Sudan as consequence of failure of implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.
The EU said in a statement on Thursday that South Sudan parties must implement provisions of the 2018 peal deal and would impose further sanctions should the parties fail to do what they have been obliged to do by the peace agreement.
In a statement on Friday, the National Alliance for Democracy and Freedom Action (NADAFA) led by Dr. Hakim Dario who is also the chairperson of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), said it welcomes the EU statement.
“The National Alliance for Democracy and Freedom Action (South Sudan NADAFA) welcomes The EU General Council’s Declaration of 30th April 2020 on South Sudan and in particular the EU’s Council support for the peace process facilitated by the Community of Saint’Egidio to foster an inclusive dialogue with the non-signatories of R-ARCSS 2018,” the statement extended to Sudans Post partly reads.
“South Sudan NADAFA have grave and fundamental reservations about [1]R-ARCSS’s stipulations and provisions for the constitution-making process, which are executive led and not people-driven through a Constituent Assembly of the People’s representatives from greater Upper Nile, Equatoria, and Bahr al Ghazal regions of South Sudan, who would be selected through a People’s Constitutional Convention process and not appointees of SPLM-IO and SPLM-IG to the Transitional National Legislative Assembly as currently stipulated in the flawed R-ARCSS,” the statement added.
The PDM is not a signatory to the revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018 by President Salva Kiir’s government and other opposition groups such as the SPLM-IO led by now First Vice President Riek Machar.
The holdout opposition group pulled out of peace talks going on at the time in the Sudanese capital Khartoum over what it said was government monopoly of the process that they said was not addressing the root causes of the South Sudan conflict.
The statement further said that the holdout opposition alliance “welcomes the EU General Council’s Declaration for a democratic and transparent Constitution-Making process that is people-driven and which puts the people first, not the R-TGONU Executive appointees of SPLM to lead the constitution making process.”
“The currently proposed TNLA will comprise SPLM appointees of the parties to the R-ARCSS (SPLM IG 330MPs, and 134 SPLM-IO MPs) who are not elected representatives of the people of South Sudan with a mandate to pass a new constitution for the country on the basis of which general election would be conducted to elect a new Government at end of the Transitional period.
“South Sudan NADAFA calls on the EU and its member states to stand with the people of South Sudan and support them facilitate People’s Constitutional Conventions in Upper Nile, Equatoria and Bahr al Ghazal regions in which they would select their representatives to both the Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assemblies.”
