The UN urges to take “urgent action” for a peace agreement in South Sudan

Oct. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United Nations Human Rights Commission in South Sudan has urged African countries and stakeholders to implement a peace agreement for the country, as Juba faces one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the region.

“The conflict in South Sudan has become increasingly complex, while the level of suffering of millions of civilians remains intolerable,” said UN experts visiting Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to meet with the African Union (AU). ) in peace processes.

Barney Afako, UN commissioner, spoke along these lines during the visit, lamenting that “each new extension of the deadlines for the implementation of the peace agreement and, in fact, each day that passes of inaction, means not only waste of time, but of lives”.

“Every month we see thousands of South Sudanese crossing borders, … moving around the country trying to dodge an ever-changing mosaic of violence,” Afako said.

For this reason, the president of the commission of the international organization in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, has urged that the AU take the initiative in the following steps to establish an ‘ad hoc’ tribunal and the establishment of the Truth Commission .

“The South Sudan peace process cannot be implemented by itself. We urgently need the African Union to take the next steps,” Sooka said.

The president of the commission has criticized that the African country – the youngest country in the world when it declared its independence from its now northern neighbor in 2011 – has become “a refuge for those who commit the most atrocious violence.”

“As a result, nearly nine million South Sudanese still need humanitarian assistance to survive. That’s a staggering three quarters of the population. People are being killed, maimed, raped and made homeless and we know from other countries that a credible process truth and justice is the only way to stop this,” he denounced.

South Sudan has a unity government that was launched after the materialization of the peace agreement signed in 2018 by the president, Salva Kiir, and the rebel leader Riek Machar, who was reappointed to the position he held before the war. civil. Among the main pending issues is the unification of the security forces, scheduled for November.

Negotiations for the unification of the security forces have been plagued by persistent disputes between the parties over the allocation of proportions of representation and resources.

In addition, the parties to the agreement have also failed to meet the deadlines set for fundamental reforms and the establishment of transitional bodies.