The IGAD Council of Ministers has decided to convene an extraordinary meeting on South Sudan on Thursday, a statement from the IGAD office said.
The meeting, the statement said, is expected to follow up on the progress of the implementation of the peace agreement and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to the peace agreement.
The statement pointed out that the IGAD special envoy for South Sudan will brief the media, via video conferencing on Friday.
The extraordinary meeting comes as South Sudan’s parties continue to battle over state allocations.
Consultative meetings between the parties over responsibility sharing at the state and local governments have ended in a deadlock persisting as they could not agree on the allocation of the country’s 10 states, despite the formula given by the agreement.
The September 2018 peace deal says responsibility sharing at state and county levels shall be 55% for Incumbent TGoNU, SPLM-IO 27%, SSOA 10% and OPP 8%.
The positions that shall be shared as per the responsibility sharing formula are governors, speakers of state legislatures, state councils of ministers, state legislatures, county commissioners and county councils.
The peace agreement also says SPLM-FDs shall have three state ministers in states of their choice.