The spokesman of South Sudan's government Michael Makuei announced in Addis Ababa yesterday that 'real' implementation of the August peace agreement may now start, owing to the signing of a security deal that elaborates on the terms of the August agreement.

The parties yesterday signed a document limiting the number of military troops in Juba and National Security Service personnel to 4830 only, including 3420 from the government side and 1410 from the SPLM-IO side.

Speaking on the occasion, Makuei commented, “This is a day when we will start the real operationalization of the peace agreement in the Republic of South Sudan. We have not been able to move forward all this time because without proper security arrangements on the ground, we would not be in a position to talk about implementation of any other provisions in the agreement.”

Makuei further said “This will be the last meeting here in Addis because from now onwards we are transferring the implementation of the agreement into South Sudan. And with this we thank the IGAD for the job well done.”

He later added, “We hope and we are optimistic that we will reach peace and that our country will be back to normalcy and that we shall live in peace and harmony.”

SPLM-IO chief negotiator Taban Deng said likewise, “This is a special day to the people of South Sudan... in the SPLM-IO we believe today, the 3rd of this month marks an historical day to the people of the Repubic of South Sudan. This is a very important step toward full implementation of the peace we have signed.”

“By the middle of this month the SPLM/SPLA [IO] delegation should be in Juba. Once again Comrade Michael [Makuei], prepare for our reception and the services that we should need while in Juba. I know the country is facing a lot of difficulty in terms of finances but as we have already signed an appeal to the partners that they would support this process, we believe that they will come to our support.”

Taban Deng further appealed to international partners to “avail resources” to catch up with lost time in implementing the various steps of the agreement.