The Tumaini Initiative talks for South Sudan in Nairobi are not “dead,” Information Minister Michael Makuei said Wednesday, one day after the opposition met Kenya’s President William Ruto.
“I would like to inform the public that the Tumaini Initiative is ongoing and it is alive. Don’t listen to the rumors that are being spread that Tumaini is dead,” he told the state media.
Makuei said the hiccups were a normal issue in any negotiations. “Therefore, we are convinced that we will be in a position to come up with a Tumaini Consensus that will lead to peace and stability in South Sudan.”
Makuei, who is the rapporteur for the government delegation at the Nairobi talks, urged the public not to lose hope.
The mediation, Makuei said, had allowed the media houses to come back to the negotiation venue in Nairobi to keep informing the people of South Sudan about the progress.
“I am inviting all the media houses that are capable of sustaining their personnel in Nairobi to come and do the daily coverage of the process so that our people are fully informed on time,” he said.
The peace talks started in Nairobi on May 9, but halted last month after representatives of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Riek Machar, walked out.
They argued that the protocols under discussion would undermine the provisions of the 2018 peace deal. Officially known as the Revitalized Agreement, it was signed between President Salva Kiir’s SPLM and SPLM-IO and other political factions.
The negotiations in Nairobi were meant to bring in groups that had stayed away from the revitalized peace deal.
Last week, the chief mediator, Gen (rtd) Lazarus Sumbeiywo of Kenya, told Radio Tamazuj that the mediation was at a very advanced stage after the parties initialed a number of protocols.
According to Gen Sumbeiywo, the mediation briefed the leadership in Juba and said that they were waiting for the government delegation to return to the talks.