The ministers of foreign affairs of South Sudan and Sudan in a joint communique on behalf of their respective heads of state on Friday said President Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan submitted to President Salva Kiir a proposal for the unification of the necessary unified forces, including the command structure, for the SSPDF, SPLA-IO, and SSOA.
The chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, arrived in Juba on Thursday evening to assess the progress in the implementation of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement and was received by President Salva Kiir and a host of his cabinet ministers.
Sudan and Uganda are the two guarantors of the 2018 Khartoum Peace Agreement whose implementation has faced challenges and is lagging behind schedule.
“As a guarantor of the South Sudan Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), H.E. President Burhan submitted to President Kiir a proposal for the unification of the necessary unified forces,” the joint communique read. “Including the command structure, for the SSPDF, SPLA-IO, and SSOA. President Kiir welcomed the proposal as reflecting President Burhan’s military acumen and his commitment to lasting peace in South Sudan.”
The communique said with this essential security sector issue agreed upon, the presidents turned to South Sudan and Sudan’s bilateral relations.
“With peace and security as prerequisites to socio-economic advancements, the heads of state committed to establishing and extending stability nationally and regionally across the Horn of Africa. They expressly agree to focus on cooperation along the borders of our two independent republics,” it read. “As a starting point for this cooperation, Presidents Salva Kiir and H.E. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan agreed to set a model of peace through the development of unitized oil fields, including in the Abyei area.”
The respective foreign ministries were charged to operationalize committees for cross-border development that will elaborate the details of the cooperation to rebuild the historic bridges between the two countries.
“The presidents take this opportunity to encourage the citizens of South Sudan and Sudan to make our diversities become a source of enrichment and strength for both countries,” the communique concluded. “South Sudan and Sudan will revive the ancient economic, political and cultural cooperation that made our Nile Valley civilizations prosperous as far back as the Kushite Kingdom, which unites our people in a common origin.”
Al-Burhan was in Uganda on Thursday and met with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni before traveling to Juba