The holdout groups say they are hopeful peace talks with the transitional coalition government in Nairobi will resume soon, indicating that the new initiative could be the country’s last chance at long-term stability.
This comes after South Sudan’s main opposition political outfit, the SPLM-IO, led by First Vice President Riek Machar, announced its withdrawal from the peace talks in Kenya dubbed the Tumaini Peace Initiative on Tuesday.
Machar, a principal of the transitional government, argued that the Nairobi talks were overstepping the mandate and undermining the country’s existing revitalized peace deal and sovereignty.
According to the party, some protocols signed in the peace talks included parallel institutions that duplicated the revitalized peace provisions.
“There are concerted efforts to resume negotiations, and we expect the SPLM-IO to return to the negotiation table soon. We believe that the SPLM-IO will come back and we think that the Political Bureau of SPLM-IO was not briefed well on what we agreed upon,” Lual Dau, secretary general of the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) faction, told Radio Tamazuj Sunday.
Lual maintained that the only solution to the South Sudan conflict and crises lies in a politically negotiated settlement owned by all the political parties and stakeholders. He added that the Tumaini Initiative is the only platform to render the desired results.
“We are doing our best and the government delegation in Juba will brief them. The SPLM-IO will also be briefed by the Kenyan mediation and us in the holdout group so that they come back,” he said.
The opposition official revealed that the parties to the Tumaini Initiative have yet to negotiate and agree on the constitution-making process, justice, economics, power-sharing, and implementation matrix.
According to Lual, the discussion and development of the implementation matrix will most likely take a long time.
“We want to develop a clear implementation matrix with a clear budget and timeline, and it will take more time. But we would like to tell the public that we are expected to reach a peace deal this year because there is progress,” he said.
“Some technical committees are working, and those committees were formed even before the withdrawal of the SPLM-IO. Actually, the SPLM-IO delegation to the peace talks is still in Nairobi, but it has not attended any meetings since its Political Bureau announced its withdrawal from the talks. However, we hope they will return to the talks soon,” he added.
According to Lual, some members of the government delegation to the Tumaini Initiative returned to Juba earlier this week for consultations on the SPLM-IO’s withdrawal from the talks.
Peace negotiations between the South Sudan government and some holdout groups were launched in Kenya on May 9.
The mediation is led by former Kenya army commander Lazarus Sumbeiywo, who also mediated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 which gave Southern Sudan autonomy and later led to a referendum for independence in 2011.