![US Coordinator for Global Democratic Renewal, Erin M. Barclay (center) meeting with leaders of new South Sudan opposition coalition in Washington on Friday, October 20th, 2023. [Photo by US State Department]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/F85IpTrWoAAk4gk.jpeg?resize=1024%2C588&ssl=1)
In a communique on Thursday, Peter Biar Ajak, leader of Revive South Sudan Party (RSS), Garang Kuot, leader of Common People’s Alliance (CPA), Goi Jooyul, representative of SPLM-IO Kitgwang, Suzzane Jambo, leader of Steps We64, Jongkor Mayol, leader of United Citizens for Change (UCC), and Deng Mayik Atem, leader of Red Army of South Sudan announced the formation of the new alliance.
They called on other political organizations in South Sudan and affirmed “our unity in diversity” as well as their “unwavering commitment to a shared vision of a democratic, diverse, liberated, and prosperous South Sudan.”
In a statement on Friday, a day after the formation of the alliance, the US State Department said its Coordinator for Global Democratic Renewal in the Office of the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Human Rights and Democracy and senior official for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Erin M. Barclay had a “productive” meeting with leaders of the alliance.
“Senior Official Erin Barclay had a productive discussion with leaders of the South Sudanese Coalition for Restoration of Democracy. Free and fair elections require everybody’s right to express their views and participate in the political process without fear,” the statement said.
No further details were given about the meeting. The United States is one of a few Western countries who assisted South Sudan in its decades of war for independence from Sudan. Since independence of the new country, relations between South Sudan and the US have been in their lowest rating in history with US differing with South Sudan’s leaders on human rights record following our break of war in 2013.
In a peace agreement largely funded by the United States in 2018 to end the five-year-old conflict, the parties to the conflict agreed to form a unity government with the aim of preparing the country for its first democratic elections, but the leaders of South Sudan have been slow in the implementation of the peace agreement.
The United States has called on the unity government to implement key provisions of the agreement so that an environment necessary for the elections is create, but there is no sign that the country will be elections or if it would be free and fair as the leaders have contradicted each other as to if the elections will indeed take place in 2024 as scheduled.
Biar is one of the exiled opposition leaders calling for elections and his party, the RSSP, has expressed its interest in contesting against long-time leaders of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.
