The First Vice President Dr Riek Machar, other vice presidents and ministers will embark on a peace tour around the country to facilitate the implementation of peace agreement.
The tour was sanctioned by a high-profile meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Tuesday, February 2, to fast track the implementation of the peace agreement. Dr Machar and the other vice presidents attended the meeting.
‘’This measure is intended among other things, to help address some of the recurrent problems associated with freedom of access to and movement within, areas still under the administrative control of the SPLM-IO by entrenching the reality that the R-TGoNU is a single unified government having undivided jurisdiction over the entire territory of South Sudan,” according to the statement signed by the Minister of Presidential Affairs Nhial Deng Nhial.
Though not specific on the date of the tour, the statement from the president’s desk said the decision is in conformity with the administration of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
Recommended action
The meeting made a recommendation that the government will speed up the formation of state governments. This will take the form of exercising lots of presidential decrees to make the necessary appointments.
“By finalising the list of nominations and issuance of the requisite presidential decrees in the course of this week effecting the appointments of the state advisors, state ministers, state commission chairpersons and members, county commissioners, state legislative assemblies and ounty councils,” the statement notes in part.
They also resolved that top most army personnel need to be unified under one neutral figure who will command the army. This would mean that upon graduation, the entire national army will work under the tutelage of that one personnel. This will come handy with the graduation of the unified forces that has taken so long.
“That the graduation of the first batch of the Unified Forces currently in the various training centers across the country be conducted without further delay and not with standing the lack of equipment essential for their graduation and lunch preparations to admit the next batch of trainees to the training centers.
The resolution will provide a boost to the government that is coming under heavy criticism for failing to implement the chapter two of the agreement which talks about the graduation of unified forces. This is after it emerged that some trainees had left the camp due to frustrations and postponed graduations. Last week, the cabinet cleared the ministry justice and constitutional affairs to form the hybrid court in tandem with the chapter five of the agreement.