Kitab Unango and Sheila Ponnie
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, Angelina Teny, is urging the Kit-Gwang and Agwelek forces to join the second phase of the implementation of the security arrangement.
Speaking during the final graduation of the first batch of the Necessary Unified Forces in Malakal town on Monday, Angelina said the government wants all the holdout groups to be part of the peace implementation.
Teny argues that reaching out to the groups will achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace in the country.
“We heard the president during the first graduation ceremony in Juba offering amnesty to the holdout groups, and we are in discussions with them, and the president directed them to join the processes of peace,” she said.
Angelina wondered why Gen. Simon Gatwech’s Kit-Gwang faction had not joined the peace process since signing the 2021 Khartoum agreement and added that ‘respect’ for the agreement was paramount to ending hostility in the Upper Nile region allegedly perpetuated by the two factions.
She argued that, besides agreement with the government, President Salva Kiir’s August 30 verbal amnesty was sufficient for Kit-Gwang and Agwelek’s positive responses to achieve comprehensive and lasting peace in the country.
“Kit-Gwang has an agreement with the government…why should they conduct shelling?” she posed in reference to the recent armed violence in some parts of Upper Nile State, which has displaced thousands of people and claimed an unspecified number of lives.
“We still call on them to do so, but we do not understand the purpose of Olony and Kit-Gwang…they have an agreement, and we call on them to respect the agreement and come to Juba so that the agreement can be implemented so that we embark on the development and phase two [of graduation processes] in peace.”
However, the minister warned that no external forces would be allowed after the commencement of the phase two training process, which is expected to begin next month as per the October Roadmap.
“If there is an agreement [between the government and Kit-Gwang], it should be respected, and they should join and be organised in the second phase [of the training process]. “We do not want anybody outside again.’’
Kit-Gwang’s presence in the greater Upper Nile has been called into question due to rising insecurity in several parts of the Malakal and Bentiu.
The faction signed an agreement with the government in early 2021 but is yet to be implemented.
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