South Sudan: IGAD to discuss peace enforcement soon

The East African bloc, IGAD, will hold a meeting with the South Sudanese peace partners in Khartoum within ten days to discuss the ongoing implementation process.

In Juba, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on Friday issued a status update on the implementation of the peace pact one month after the signing ceremony on 12 September.

The regional body plans to closely monitoring and supervising the implementation process, and to hold the parties accountable for the delay and obstruction encountered during the process.

IGAD Representative to Sudan and South Sudan Abu Zaid al-Hassan told the Sudanese Media Center that the meeting, which is set for the 22 October, will gather in Khartoum the South Sudanese parties, the IGAD mediation body and the Sudanese mediation team that brokered talks on the outstanding issues.

The meeting will discuss the implementation matrix and outstanding or missed tasks. Also, it will tackle the upcoming activities and the impact of the current delay on its enforcement.

Al-Hassan further said that the IGAD dispatched a technical team to Juba to provide support and assistance in the implementation process, pointing that the delegation will oversee the activities of the different committees recently established in line with the arrangements of the pre-transitional period.

In its first monthly report, the JMEC said that the partners sought to demonstrate their commitment to the agreement through several confidence-building measures in a bid to create a suitable atmosphere enabling the swift and smooth implementation of the deal.

Also, the mechanism took note of the announcement that the parliament will ratify the revitalised peace agreement "in the week ahead".

Further, it disclosed that "firm dates have been set for the inaugural meetings of the National Pre Transitional Committee (NPTC), and the National Constitution Amendment Committee (NCAC), on 21-22 October in Khartoum, the Republic of Sudan".

However, the IGAD peace implementation body "urged the parties to match their action with words by speeding up the releases" of Prisoners of War and detainees.

"There is a need for the government to continue taking additional confidence-building measures and the regional guarantors to ensure the prevalence of a conducive political and security environment in Juba for the return of the opposition parties," says the report.