Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan opposition leader, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, has hinted at withdrawal from the Revitalized Peace Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), saying “no current configuration of transitional arrangements will deliver South Sudan” and as such the opposition forces in the country “have to shift gear.”
Akol is the leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) which is a member of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), a consortium of eight opposition groups that signed the revitalized peace agreement with the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in September 2018.
In a statement marking eleven years of South Sudan’s independence, Akol said the revitalized peace agreement has not been implemented as a result of intentional lack of will from his peace partners and said no elections can be conducted as provided for in the agreement because of the current unpredictable political space.
“As the Revitalized Agreement stipulated, our country was to begin the elections process 34 months into the transitional period so that the elected government assumes office by 22 February 2023 to usher our country into a democratic era. Today, we are less than six months to the date set for the elections and nothing has been done in terms of creating a level space for free, fair and credible elections,” Akol said.
“All this for the lack of political will. No elections can be conducted under the current suffocating conditions. However, the alternative is not the extension of the transitional period under the current government whose legitimacy and mandate expire on 22 February 2023. Doing so is tantamount to rewarding deliberate failure to implement the agreement,” he added.
The prominent opposition leader said his group’s position is for a meeting of opposition forces outside the country to discuss a way to end the suffering of the people of South Sudan which he said the citizens have been subjected to before and after independence in 2011.
“The NDM position is for the political forces in the country including the hold-out groups to join their brothers in the civil society organizations in a round table conference outside the country to discuss and agree on the way forward for our country to alleviate the suffering our people have been reeling under before and after independence,” Akol said.
Akol said failure of the 2018 peace agreement, which was revitalized in 2018, to realize aspirations of the people of South Sudan for peace should be a lesson that no transitional arrangement will ever end the suffering of the people of South Sudan under current set up.
“We had the 2015 agreement which was revitalized with the 2018 agreement and both have failed to deliver the desired results. Repeating the same failed experiment more than once and expect a different result is Einstein’s definition of not being sober,” Akol said.
“No current configuration of transitional arrangements will deliver South Sudan, we have to shift gear. The NDM has addressed RJMEC and IGAD on this matter,” he added.
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