South Sudan will not implement peace agreement in November: Source

Juba, August 2, 2019 (SSNA) — The government of South Sudan is prepared not to abide by the November 2019 dateline to execute the September 2018 peace deal, a high-ranking government official who has full knowledge of the matter and demands anonymity for fear of reprisal told the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) on Friday in Juba.

The source explains that the government strongly believes that by refusing to implement most or some of the main peace provisions, the pact would not be implemented in November.

“It is nearly three months now without any success at all. The pre-transitional period that was extended in early May this year is already looking like a failure,” the official explains.

“What is disturbing is that President Kiir and his close allies are telling people that they are for peace when they are not. They have a plan to impede the formation of a transitional government in November this year,” the source continues.

When pressed whether the government will ever implement the agreement. The official simply said the President and some of his close political allies are only looking for a peace deal that would keep the same leadership mentality without any reform.

“They are basically interested in accommodating people. They are not for reforms,” the source asserted.

The 2018 agreement stipulates that peace provisions must first be implemented before a provisional government is formed. The unity government was supposed to be formed in May 2019 but was extended by the East African regional bloc, IGAD, after the parties to the deal failed to implement key provisions of the agreement.

Some of the provisions needed to be executed before a government is formed include boundaries commission, demilitarization of Juba and other main cities, allocation of budget for peace implementation, a separate budget for the SPLA-IO, the reunification of the armies and retrain them as one national army, among others.