South Sudan: Kenya-led Peace Talks Stall over Creation of Alternate Structures

The Kenyan-mediated South Sudan peace talks have stalled over creation of alternate structures, sparking concerns that a delay could derail success of the process after the parties agreed on eight protocols. The talks, dubbed The Tumaini Initiative, were taking place between the national unity government led by President Salva Kiir on the one hand and the hold-out groups on the other. The holdout groups are a collection of armed and political dissidents who did not sign the 2018 peace agreement. The members of the delegation representing the government at the talks included representatives from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) under President Kiir, members of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) a key stakeholder in the September 2018 peace deal. The SPLM-IO, led by the First Vice President Riek Machar, withdrew from the talks, saying the agreement had been drafted in a way that either undermined the current structures created by the 2018 peace deal or ran parallel to it. In a statement, the leader of Real SPLM, Pagan Amum said the negotiations stalled after the armed opposition withdrew from the process, prompting the delegation representing President Kiir and other parties to follow them to Juba for further consultations with constituent organizations and structures. (Sudan Tribune)