![Director of Public Relations at the National Security Service, David John Kumuri, speaks to journalists at a press conference in Juba on Monday, February 3, 2025. [Photo by Sudans Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/DSC_9183-scaled-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C553&quality=89&ssl=1)
Kumuri, speaking at Juba International Airport during the reception of the SPLM-IO Kitgwang military advance team, emphasized the NSS’s commitment to engaging all holdout groups.
“The National Security Service will keep engaging those holdout groups that did not sign the agreement. And it’s our mandate, including General Thomas, we still pursue for peace to reign in the country,” he said.
He said that the focus now shifts to Gen. Cirilo, who has yet to publicly comment on whether he will participate in peace talks.
While the NAS leader participated in the Rome Initiative, mediated by the Community of Sant’Egidio, and signed the Rome Declaration, which called for the cessation of hostilities and a ceasefire, he has remained absent from the Nairobi-led peace talks known as the Tumaini Initiative.
In December 2024, NAS spokesperson Samuel Suba reaffirmed the group’s stance against participating in the Tumaini Initiative negotiations.
Suba stated that the talks were merely “a renewal of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement which we did not agree to or sign because it did not address solutions for South Sudan to attain genuine peace.”
Despite NAS’s stated position, there have been increasing calls for broader inclusion in the Tumaini Initiative, urging all parties who did not sign the 2018 revitalized peace agreement to join the process for more comprehensive negotiations.
In his New Year’s address, President Salva Kiir appealed to South Sudanese leaders and opposition groups to prioritize patriotism, unity, and leadership over political maneuvering and self-interest.
“We are in a transitional government made up of parties to the agreement. I do not foresee it just to leave any party behind, nor isolate some of the existing parties to the agreement,” Kiir said.
The president further emphasized the need for compromise and inclusivity.
“I implore us to compromise; to accommodate all the parties for the time has come where leadership is needed more than politics. Politics is casted on positions seeking and self-interest; but leadership is about vision for a better tomorrow, for the next generation,” Kiir stated.
