![General Charles Tai Gituai, the interim chairperson R-JMEC speaks during the 18th monthly meeting of the R-JMEC in Juba on July 22, 2021 [Photo by Awan Achiek/Sudans Post]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/28DF5224-7EAA-47CA-B4DC-A672337FDC30.jpeg?quality=89&ssl=1)
JUBA – South Sudan’s peace monitoring Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) on Thursday called on First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) to return to the joint security mechanisms overseeing the security arrangements.
This week, the Machar-led group announced the suspension of its activities from the joint security bodies to protest continued attacks by South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) or SPLA-IO defectors on their cantonment sites and bases.
The SPLM-IO, a major peace signatory to the revitalized peace agreement, said several calls to the R-JMEC and other peace monitoring mechanisms have gone without being answered forcing the group to have no choice other than pulling out of security mechanisms.
Speaking during the 22nd meeting of R-JMEC, the body’s interim chairman Gen. Charles Tai Gittuai said the security mechanisms is are key components of the revitalized peace agreement that can also be responsible for addressing concerns such as the ones raised by the SPLA-IO.
“The Joint Defense Board is a key mechanism composed of the chief of defense forces of these three parties responsible to their respective forces and as such its role is imperative in addressing security related issues,” he said.
“Therefore, addressing the specific concerns that the SPLA-IO has raised requires that these security mechanisms be fully composed of representatives from all the parties which means full participation of the SPLM/A-IO,” he added.
He urged the “the SPLM/A-IO to reverse the suspension of its participation in the security mechanisms in order to allow redress of the matters they have raised.”
