Christian Sedat, German Ambassador to South Sudan, met on Friday with Monday Semaya Kumba, South Sudan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss bilateral relations and the implementation of the Revitalised Peace Agreement.
“We had a productive discussion, amongst other topics, about the implementation of the Revitalised Peace Agreement and the current Tumaini initiative. Germany encourages and welcomes efforts which aim at finding inclusive consensus by all relevant parties on questions of the Peace Agreement and on questions regarding the elections where consensus is still lacking,” Ambassador Sedat said in a statement.
Ambassador Sedat reiterated the call made by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her visit to Juba in January: “Finding consensus among political leaders is of paramount importance.”
The German diplomat reaffirmed his country’s continued commitment to the people of South Sudan, highlighting its position as the second-largest bilateral donor.
“Germany remains a steadfast partner,” Ambassador Sedat said. “Just last week, we handed over a new water-supply system in Torit funded by Germany with about USD 2 million which will give more than 40.000 people access to clean drinking water.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Monday described Germany as a strategic country and expressed a strong desire to continue developing relations to the highest levels of cooperation in various fields.
He appreciated Germany’s valuable role in delivering humanitarian assistance to needy people and urged Germany to continue providing necessary support to the country.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 agreement that ended a five-year conflict that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The elections scheduled for last year were postponed to next December, but little preparations were in place.
The feasibility of the December 2024 elections — the first since the country gained independence in July 2011 — is increasingly in doubt.
The original transitional period agreed to in the 2018 peace deal ended on February 22, 2023, while the extension is scheduled to end on February 22, 2025.