JUBA – The speaker of South Sudan’s Amadi State assembly, Margaret Fouzia Emmanuel has strongly opposed the proposal that the current number of states in the country be reduced.
Amadi is one the states President Salva Kiir created in October 2015.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, the speaker appealed to peace partners not to support the decision to have the number of the country’s states reduced from 32 to 10 or 24.
“I, as speaker of parliament and representative of the people of Amadi State tell the peace partners in Addis Ababa or Juba not to back the reduction of the states and Amadi must remain,” she said.
President Kiir and opposition leaders missed the November 12, 2019 deadline to form a unity government and agreed to give themselves another 100 days to address the outstanding issues and then form the government in February.
Under the terms of the peace deal, the rival parties are to create a unified army and agree on the number and boundaries of states.
Last month, Kiir and Machar expressed hope that South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza, who mediates the talks on the number of states, could play a big role in bridging the divergent viewpoints of the rival parties.
