The bloc calls for using this period “effectively” to implement the 2018 peace agreement and organize “credible” elections.
BRUSSELS, September 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The European Union (EU) on Monday deplored the decision by South Sudanese authorities to extend the transition period by another two years, thereby cancelling the elections scheduled for December, while calling for the implementation of the commitments made by the parties to the 2018 peace agreement.
“The EU regrets the decision of the transitional government of South Sudan to extend the transition period for another 24 months,” a spokesman for the office of the bloc’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy said after South Sudanese President Salva Kiir signed into law on Saturday the constitutional amendment on the extension of this stage.
He stressed that this new two-year period “must be used effectively to implement the outstanding clauses of the peace agreement, especially with regard to a safe and enabling environment for the holding of transparent, inclusive and credible elections and the adoption of a permanent Constitution that reflects the will of the people.”
“South Sudanese have suffered violence, insecurity and the absence of the rule of law for too long,” he said, before insisting that the transitional government’s priority must be to “maintain peace by implementing the commitments made in the peace agreement” so that the population “can finally decide on its own future.”
Kiir on Saturday signed into law the amendment to the 2011 constitution to extend for another two years the transition period opened after the signing of the 2018 peace agreement between him and the main rebel leader and current first vice president of the African country, Riek Machar, a measure criticized by the international community.
In this regard, the troika made up of the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway has published a statement in which it has expressed its “deep concern” about the new extension of the transition period and has stressed that “it demonstrates the persistent and collective failure of the leaders of South Sudan to create the necessary conditions to hold credible and peaceful elections, in line with the established and publicly agreed timetable.”
The clauses of the original 2018 peace agreement with some of the armed groups are not being fully complied with and the new round of negotiations that began in Kenya on May 9 with the rest of the organizations, the so-called Tumani (Hope) Initiative, was rejected by Machar, who believes that it contradicts certain terms of the agreement reached six years ago.
Despite a decline in violence due to political conflict in recent years, the African country has seen an increase in inter-community clashes, mainly caused by cattle rustling and disputes between herders and farmers in the most fertile areas of the country, especially due to increasing desertification and population displacement.
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