Juba, May 9, 2019 (SSNA) — The United States government says South Sudanese September 2018 peace partners should use the six months pre-transitional extension to form a provisional government, saying the warring factions should “start thinking beyond.”
In an interview with the German-based DW news website, Thomas Hushek, the U.S. ambassador to South Sudan explains that the administration of President Donald J. Trump wants South Sudan’s rival sides to use the six months timeframe to fully implement the deal as stipulated in the pact.
“…use the six months wisely and actively accomplish all the remaining tasks that need to be done during the transition period and even start thinking beyond,” Hushek says.
The news comes hours after South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir, backtracked the six months given by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Kiir told an audience in Juba on Wednesday that he wants one year, instead of six months given by the IGAD, drawing critics from some prominent South Sudanese writers.
“The ruthless tyrant is ensuring that his cunning technique doubles. Salve Kiir now wants the recently IGAD-approved six months extension to be updated to one year. Kiir blames the rain for his new call. I know for a fact that this man who kills with impunity will not allow the September 2018 peace agreement to fully take shape. South Sudan has a monster who merely deserves to be removed from power by all means necessary. Dealing with him is like dealing with a mad and serial killer who controls state resources–in fact, his regime is irrefutably atrocious,” South Sudan News Agency’s (SSNA) editor-in-chief, Duop Chak Wuol, wrote on his Facebook account on Thursday.
The SSNA understands that Kiir was initially not for the extensions. In April, he contacted the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) Dr. Riek Machar to go to Juba and form a transitional government. Machar, refused, saying security arrangements must be first to be implemented or his movement will not join a transitional government.
During peace talks on May2-3, 2019 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the government delegation led by information minister Micheal Makuey told reporters that they were in Ethiopia simply because they were ready to form a unity government.