South Sudan crisis: Latest peace talks end in deadlock

By Parach Mach

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - The latest round of peace talks between the warring-parties in the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan, concluded inconclusive as they failed to agree on a power-sharing proposal.

Representatives of the South Sudanese government and the opposition met this week in Khartoum, with Sudan as the mediator.

Despite some signs of progress in the declaration of Permanent Ceasefire, the negotiations were deadlocked and called off on Friday after both sides rejected a power-sharing deal.

The opposition groups accused the government of breaking the ceasefire and demanded the lean government. The South Sudanese government delegates responded by labeling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/ Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) as anti-peace elements.

The government representatives accused the opposition of putting forward “unreasonable demands.”

The Opposition blamed the impasse squarely on the South Sudanese government, and criticized Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) -- an eight-country trade bloc in East Africa – “for not doing enough to push the government to engage seriously.”

Lam Paul Gabriel, the spokesman for the opposition, told Anadolu agency that there has been no breakthrough due to government’s lack of political will.

Gabriel accused the East African regional bloc and South Sudan’s neighbors including Sudan of not doing enough to end the war, saying they have been putting their own interests ahead of attaining "genuine peace."

“The talks in Sudan and all the previous talks in Ethiopia and Uganda failed due to lack of consensus on the side of mediators. The IGAD head of states need to […] tell South Sudan government to concede and compromise but they have failed to do so,” Lam said.

- 'Non-negotiable'

Since January 2014, the IGAD has led several rounds of failed peace talks between the warring South Sudanese parties, the last of which was held in Ethiopia in May 2018, followed by Kampala talks in late June.

South Sudanese government representatives have so far refused to discuss anything beyond the "Permanent Ceasefire" and blames its violation on opponents. The government side insists that President Kiir's position is “non-negotiable.”

“The talks in Sudan made a little progress due to some outstanding issues, which include number of states, system of governance and the number of vice presidents,” South Sudan’s Cabinet Affairs minister Martin Elia Lomuro, told Anadolu agency in the capital Juba.

The government did not sign the agreement because it failed to include the Entebbe power-sharing proposal, which increases the number of Cabinet ministers to 45 from 30 and members of parliament to 550 from 400, Martin explained

“The government opposed the idea of a lean Cabinet, we felt there are many aggrieved groups in form of militias, which need to be accommodated,” he added.

Other proposals that the government was not comfortable with were that it dissolves the transitional government and reconstitute it afresh, suspension of discussions on power-sharing to focus on principles such as system of governance based on federalism, core causes of civil war and annulment of 32 states.

Analyst said the talks were hanging in the balance due to lack of political will and failure to address the core roots causes of the civil war.

"The warring parties have deep seated grievances which the regional countries have no knowledge of, the old rivalries between Kiir and Machar,” said James Okuk, a political scientist at the University of Juba.

The prospects looked “grim”, Okuk said, and warned that it would be tough for Kenya or any other country willing to take up the mediation to bring the warring parties to agree.

- Impact of war on civilians

The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), a South Sudan peace monitoring group tasked by IGAD to oversee the implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, said the impact of the war on the civilian population is “deeply disheartening.”

South Sudan’s arch-rivals are expected to continue negotiating in Kenya, but no date has yet been announced for another round of talks.

In late June, President Kiir and rebel leader Machar met in Ethiopia for the first time in two years since the ruined August 2016 peace deal that led to renewed violent across the country.

South Sudan's civil war, which broke out in December 2013, just two years after the country won independence from Sudan, has continued despite repeated attempts at peace deals.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have fled to create world’s third 's largest refugee crisis.

More than 2 millions have sought refuge in neighboring countries and 6 millions of others still in the country are at the risk of famine, while the warring sides have been blamed for obstructing desperately needed aid.

Early this month, the U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution and slapped an arms embargo on South Sudan and renewed sanctions against six people, including the country's army chief.

The army and opposition have been accused of widespread abuses such as gang rapes against civilians, killings along ethnic lines and pockets of South Sudan officials on both sides have been accused by human rights groups of profiting from the conflict and derailing the peace.