R-JMEC sides with Machar over states stalemate
South Sudan’s First Vice President and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny attends the 32nd Extraordinary Summit of the IGAD heads of states in Addis Ababa on June 21, 2018. (Photo credit: YONAS TADESSE/AFP via Getty Images)
May 13, 2020 (SSNN) – The chairperson of South Sudan’s Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), Amb. Augostino Njoroge, has sided with the SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar saying President Kiir violated the revitalized peace deal last week by deciding to distribute the states to the parties.
Kiir who is a party to the 2018 over the weekend unilaterally divided the states beween the parties to the revitalized peace agreement giving himself the “lion’s share” without taking into accounts the prominence of the parties in each states.
Letter of the chairperson of South Sudan’s Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), Amb. Augostino Njoroge, dated May 9, 2020 (Credit: Obtained by Nyamilepedia).
Machar who is also the country’s First Vice President and who had sought to take the oil-rich Upper Nile state, furiously rejected Kiir’s approach saying it violates the revitalized peace agreement because it was unilateral and do not respect the prominence of each of the parties in the states.
In a positive development to the SPLM-IO and other parties, Amb. Njoroge who is to be replaced by a fellow Kenyan military official said in letter addressed to the IGAD chairman and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, that the rejection of Kiir’s decision by other signatories to the deal was an “evident that the Parties have failed to resolve the deadlock over the allocation of States.”
Njoroge said he received several complaints from several South Sudan political parties including the SPLM-IO protesting the decision of President Salva Kiir to divide the states between the parties and urged the IGAD, the regional body which mediated the peace agreement, to take urgent measures to address the states stalemate.
“I have received three letters of complaint from H.E. Dr. Riek Machar Teny, First Vice President and Chairman of the SPLM/A-IO dated 7th May 2020 (….), Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, Chairman of National Democratic Movement, a party within the SSOA dated 8th May 2020 (….) and Kornelio Kon Ngu, Chairman of National Alliance of Political Parties, a party within the OPP dated 7th May 2020 (…). In addition, the Other Political Parties (OPP) issued a press release protesting the above decision of the RTGONU Presidency dated 8th May 2020,” Njoroge wrote in the letter dated May 9th.
Letter of the chairperson of South Sudan’s Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), Amb. Augostino Njoroge, dated May 9, 2020 (Credit: Obtained by Nyamilepedia).
“I hereby, pursuant to Article 7.11 of the R-ARCSS, refer this matter to the IGAD Heads of State and Government, as guarantors to the R-ARCSS to be seized of the matter and to take all necessary measures to overcome this deadlock on the allocation of the Ten (10) States amongst the Parties,” he added.
The IGAD resolution should also includes “which party takes which states, based on Article 1.16.4 of the R-ARCSS. This is critical and urgent to ensure continued and smooth implementation of the R-ARCSS in letter, spirit and in accordance with the Agreement timelines.”
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