The office of President Salva Kiir is yet to release the schedule for the resumption of the Rome negotiations, which was planned for this month, President Kiir’s Press Secretary, Ateny Wek Ateny, has revealed.
Mr Ateny told The City Review on Wednesday, that the timetable for the next round of negotiations remains unknown until the Presidential Advisor on National Security, Tut Gatluak, returns to Juba from Khartoum, Sudan.
“I don’t have any idea yet until Tut Gatluak comes back to the country,” said Mr Ateny, as he responded to a question on whether there was an update on the talks’ resumption since it was scheduled for January 2022.
The return date for Mr Gatluak, who is in Khartoum, remains a guess. This is after he led a government delegation that reached an agreement with SPLM/A-IO Kit-Gwang on Sunday to end the five-month-long conflict between the group and the SPLA-IO mainstream.
During the preparation workshop for the resumption of the talks in December 2021, the Community of Sant’Egidio, – the mediator—said talks between the government and the South Sudan Opposition Alliance Movement (SSOMA) would resume in January 2022.
This came following mounting pressure on the government to make the peace process in the country inclusive to bring lasting stability to the people in South Sudan. The announcement came in the wake of a presidential order in which President Kiir lifted the suspension of the negotiations in November last year.
The head of the state halted the talks in August last year due to an alleged lack of adherence to the 2017 Cessation of Hostility Agreement by SSOMA, which they denied but turned the blame on pro-government soldiers.
However, other SSOMA members – the South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A) of Gen. Paul Malong Awan and the Real Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (R-SPLM) of Pagan Amum – have expressed a willingness to take part in the forthcoming round of talks.
The National Salvation Front (NAS) of General Thomas Cirilo Swaka was yet to declare its position as his forces, and the SSPDF continued to trade accusations over attacks in some parts of the Central Equatoria State.