The East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), will present a reviewed proposal for a compromise between warring parties so as to end the civil war in South Sudan on Tuesday.
The IGAD mediation has taken over the peace process today after the South Sudan warring parties reached a deadlock through the intra-South Sudanese talks facilitated by religious leaders.
South Sudan’s cabinet minister Martin Elia Lomuro said from Addis Ababa this evening that the regional mediation will make a compromise position for the parties on Tuesday.
Lomuro noted that the progress made on all outstanding issues since the peace talks started last week was very modest, pointing out that there were sticking positions, especially on security and presidency.
“Our view as government is that you cannot canton all the forces, and when they say all, they mean the SPLA, the National Security Service, the Police, the Fire Brigade and everybody, and then handover the country to the UN force and for us that means trusteeship,” he said.
“What we think is reasonable is to canton forces that are close to each other in the area of war. We thought that we had agreed initially that can be done in six months and then integrate and organize the forces before the transitional period starts. So we are different in that scenario,” he said.
The top government official explained that the parties could not reach an agreement on governance.” The difference is whether you will have two, three or four vice presidents, and or assistant presidents. In terms of the size of parliament, most of those who provided their positions have agreed that there will be 400+ members,” he said.
“On the question of affirmative action for women that is 35% that is agreed. On the question of states there is a stalemate there,” he added.
Lomuro underscored that the number of states will be decided by the people of South Sudan, pointing out that they had requested the East African regional bloc IGAD to travel to South Sudan to assess the feeling of people whether to dissolve the current states or not.