South Sudan threatens to exclude US, UK and Norway from peace implementation

JUBA – South Sudan government on Thursday threatened to continue with implementation of the revitalized peace agreement in absence of powerful Western countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Norway, alleging that they are “here to obstruct our own initiative.”

This comes hours after the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) voted unanimously to endorse last month’s extension, by the parties to the revitalized peace agreement, of the transitional period for two years.

The Troika countries (US, UK and Norway) abstained from the vote, arguing that “the government did not take the opportunity for meaningful engagement with civil society and other agreement stakeholders, which we believe increases the chances of successful implementation.”

Speaking to reporters following the endorsement of the extension, information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said the Troika countries are not signatories to the peace agreement and shouldn’t be in the R-JMEC meeting in the first place.

“For Troika to decline to vote, originally, the Troika is not signatories to the agreement and they are not even supposed to be sitting here,” the senior government official said.

The minister said his government will continue with implementation of the 2018 peace deal without the need to include the powerful South Sudan friends and pointed to the previous United States suspension of funding for peace mechanisms.

“But we allow them to sit and if they have come here to obstruct our own initiative and they are absent from it then we will continue without them if they so wish,” Makuei said.

“We will continue without them. The Americans has withdrawn their support from the security mechanism and we manage to graduate these forces now without the American support,” Makuei added.

Last month, parties to the 2018 peace deal extended their mandate by two years to complete the political, security, and electoral reforms needed to move the country forward – starting on 22 February 2023 and ends in February 2025.