UN urges South Sudan parties to recommit to peace implementation as he meets Machar

JUBA – The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Nicholas Haysom has appealed to the peace parties in South Sudan to use dialogue to resolve differences and to recommit to the full implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

This comes a day after the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar withdrew its participation from peace monitoring bodies as well as from joint security mechanisms over escalating attacks on SPLM-IO.

In a statement, Machar’s office said a team of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan led by Haysom met with the First Vice President and the UN diplomat urged the South Sudan peace parties to use dialogue to resolve disagreements and to also recommit to the implementation of the agreement.

“His Excellency the First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon met in his office with a delegation from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan led by the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of UNMISS, H.E. Nicholas Haysom to discuss the latest developments in the implementation of revitalized peace agreement and to seek a way forward,” the statement from Machar’s office reads in part.

The statement said the UN envoy called, in statements to the media, “on the peace parties to use dialogue as a means of addressing disputes and “also urged the R-TGoNU to recommit to the full implementation of the agreement to pave a way for a peaceful transition at the end of the agreement.”