With seven months remaining in the transitional period, Robert Fairweather, the UK envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, is urging South Sudan leaders to move the country out of transition and develop a detailed roadmap that will lead to elections.
“Talking of the extension of the peace agreement on its own is not a roadmap for implementation. What we would like to see is a roadmap which sets some details of what actions will be taken, who is responsible for the delivery of those actions, a timeframe and how the implementation will be funded,” Fairweather said.
The special envoy, who was addressing the media in Juba on Tuesday, said: “It is up to the parties to the agreement themselves to determine the terms of the roadmap including the details of any possible extension and the timeline but also credible plan in terms of what needs to be in there.”
Fairweather underscored that any extension of the transitional coalition government must be time-bound. “There must be details, and it should explain specific actions that will be taken under each chapter of the agreement, what are the dates they are aiming for,” he said.
For his part, the UK ambassador to South Sudan, Mr Jonny Baxter, said the visit of the UK special envoy to the capital Juba is a milestone in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.
“Robert is visiting now because as a longstanding friend of South Sudan, the UK has been concerned that the peace agreement has not been implemented fast enough, and this slow progress risks the chance of achieving an enduring peace that South Sudan deserves,” Baxter said.
According to the ambassador, the visiting envoy held a series of meetings with South Sudan’s political actors and parties on the implementation of the peace agreement and the humanitarian situation in the country.
“In these meetings, we have discussed a range of issues including the peace process, but also the terrible humanitarian situation here in South Sudan, the ongoing violence and the UK’s long-term support for the South Sudanese citizens,” he said.
The transitional period in South Sudan began in Feb 2020, but the agreement’s key provisions remain largely unimplemented. Elections are scheduled to be conducted 60 days before the end of the transitional period, which is in December 2022, and yet many requisite laws are pending.
Sudan’s foreign affairs minister Ali al-Sadiq announced last week that the parties to the South Sudan peace agreement agreed to extend the transitional period.