The secretary-general and spokesperson of the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) and the other opposition groups taking part in the Tumaini Initiative on Saturday said the talks have ground to a halt, a claim the government delegation and mediation denied.
Lual Dau who addressed a press conference in Nairobi on Saturday afternoon, said the leadership of SSOMA and other opposition groups would like to inform the people of South Sudan, the region, and the international community that the Tumanini negotiations are deadlocked.
“The new government delegation came with a new position reneging and denying the eight protocols as indicated in the 6 November Juba Joint Communique. It is clear that the government has not only changed the delegation but it has changed its position. Instead of focusing on the resumption of the Tumaini Initiative on negotiating responsibility sharing protocols, being the only outstanding issue, the government wanted to reopen all the protocols and renegotiate the Tumaini Consensus from the beginning,” he said. “Yesterday (Friday), the mediation informed the parties and stakeholders about the decision of the principal mediator, President William Ruto of Kenya, who requested the parties not to adjourn the talks and urged them to continue until progress is achieved and to bring peace to the suffering people of South Sudan as a Christmas gift.”
“Today (Saturday), the Government of South Sudan has walked out of the talks, defying the decision and appeal of President Ruto,” Dau added.
He said the attitude of the government delegation demonstrates their bad intentions to obstruct the Tumaini Initiative and dismantle the Tumaini Consensus.
“It is very important to inform the suffering people of South Sudan that the new government delegation opted to stay in the most expensive hotel in Nairobi even though they were offered accommodation by the mediation. This attitude demonstrates the insensitivity of the government delegation to the plight of the citizens who have not been paid their salaries for over a year,” Dau charged. “Finally, the opposition remains committed to finalizing the responsibility-sharing protocol as the only outstanding issue to conclude the Tumaini Initiative with the signing of the Tumaini Consensus as a rescue plan to avoid the collapse and disintegration of South Sudan to usher the country into an era of sustainable peace and democracy.”
However, South Sudan Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol who is also the deputy leader of the government delegation to the talks, denied that the talks have broken down and said that the government delegation is going to Juba for consultations.
“Our position is that Tumaini must complement R-ARCSS. We made observations that there are repetitions and there are mechanisms/structures that are parallel to and contradict R-ARCSS. The (mediation) pulled that out as an agenda on its own. Number three was responsibility sharing and four was the timeframe for the conclusion of the talks,” he explained. “As a government delegation, we accepted this agenda of the mediation although our previous position was that we should first present our observations out of the previous protocols. But when the mediation came up with this, we decided to go ahead with the suggestion of the mediation for the talks to move forward. However, the opposition insisted that only responsibility sharing and the conclusion of the talks should be discussed and that they were not ready to discuss the rest. As a result, we could not discuss the agenda.”
Minister Kang added: “So, the mediation went back and came with what they said is a middle ground, and this (Saturday) morning, we were all served with a document, The Draft Framework for Tumaini Complement to R-ARCSS.”
He said that as the government delegation, they decided to take the draft back to the leadership in Juba which sent them to look at and will respond when they return to Nairobi.
“We concluded with the mediation that there is a need for adjournment so that each group goes back to brief their constituents and also make suggestions where necessary. I would like to make it very clear that the talks have not collapsed and we are only going for a break and we will come back to Nairobi and continue with the negotiations,” he said. “I would also like to make it clear that the initiative came from President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, so, this notion that there are people who are anti-Tumaini is unfounded. We are saying that R-ARCSS has resolved the conflict in South Sudan that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed property, and broken the social fabric in the country and the agreement cannot be changed with Tumaini.”
“In the R-ARCSS, we have over 45 political parties and you cannot change it because of the four [opposition] parties that are at the Tumiani talks but we agree that we need everybody on board and to participate in the implementation of R-ARCSS,” Minister Kang added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Mediator Ambassador Mohamed Guyo in a separate press statement said that the talks that have been ongoing for the last seven months have made notable progress.
“The parties have agreed on the key agenda items required to reinvigorate the mediation process. However, the discussions at this stage have focused on four critical agenda items. The first one is the relationship between the Tumaini Initiative and the ARCSS,” he clarified. “Secondly, repetitions, mechanisms/structures, and contradictions between the Tumaini Initiative Protocols and R-ARCSS. The third one is responsibility sharing and the fourth is the conclusion of the Tumaini Initiative and the date of signing the Tumaini Consensus. The mediation team has prepared a single negotiating text for these agenda items called the Draft Framework for Tumaini Complement to R-ARCSS and urges all parties to approach the talks with openness, political goodwill, and a shared commitment to peace for the well-being of the people of South Sudan.”
“The framework for the single negotiating text was developed taking into account the position of all parties and as you noted during the initial phase of the Tumaini Initiative, the parties submitted their positions at the beginning of the negotiations from which the eight protocols were developed,” Amb. Guyo added.
The diplomat explained that the current government position paper arose from the eight protocols that were submitted to mediation officially.
“The mediation has reviewed the government position and identified issues they raised in the protocol which are now part of the accepted agenda items by the opposition and the government and the mediation expanded it to the draft framework for the Tumaini complement R-ARCSS,” he enlightened.
Guyo said that while significant progress has been made, the Government of South Sudan delegation has requested a temporary adjournment to return to Juba for further consultations.
“The mediation will resume in mid-January 2025 in Nairobi and the Tumaini Initiative remains committed to fostering an inclusive and lasting peace for the people of South Sudan,” he stated.