The East African bloc of nations IGAD threatened to categorize as peace "spoilers" the holdout rebel groups that refused to join the peace deal in South Sudan.
This comes in a meeting held by the IGAD Council of Ministers in Addis Ababa on Friday.
The Council directed the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais to reach out to any warring groups who are not signatories to the peace deal.
“The Council directs the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan to reach out to the South Sudanese stakeholders and any warring groups who are not signatories to the R-ARCSS to join in its implementation; Otherwise, they shall be labeled spoilers of the peace process,” partly reads the statement issued after the meeting.
The non-signatory rebel groups in South Sudan are the opposition National Salvation Front (NAS) led by Gen. Thomas Cirillo, People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) led by Hakim Dario, the United Democratic Republic Alliance (UDRA) of Gatwech K. Thich, South Sudan National Movement for Change (SSNMC) led by Vakindi L. Unvu, and National Democratic Movement (NDM) led by Emanuel Aban.
The holdout opposition groups said the peace agreement signed in September failed to address the root causes of the conflict in South Sudan.
The IGAD Council of Ministers applauded the progress made in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement since its signing two months ago and the establishment of the implementation institutions and mechanisms.
It called upon the IGAD Secretariat and the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan to ensure that all the remaining implementation mechanisms and institutions are set up as soon as possible within the prescribed timelines under the agreement.
The Council urged the AU Ad-hoc Committee on South Sudan and the Troika to make their nominations to the Independent Boundaries Commission (IBC) and the Technical Boundaries Committee (TBC) to enable these institutions to execute their mandate.
It also requested the South Sudanese government to allocate more resources for the implementation of the signed peace deal.