Kiir’s mediation team in Khartoum for talks
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President Salva Kiir has sent a mediation team headed by his security advisor, Tut Gatluak, to follow up on the implementation matrix of the Juba peace agreement.
The team that arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Saturday is expected to hold talks with Sudanese leaders on the implementation of the November deal between Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
“We have come with the directive from the President of the Republic of South Sudan, 1st Lt. Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, to his brother, 1st Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, concerning the political situation in Sudan,” Gatluak told the media in Sudan.
“We are after peace and all that leads to stability in Sudan because stability in Sudan means stability in South Sudan that is why we have come … so that how the current agreement between the President of Sovereign Council and Prime Minister can be implemented, and all the Sudan agreement.”
On November 21, Al-Burhan, the leader of Military Sovereign Council, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok signed a deal, reinstating the latter in a stunning reversal of a military takeover that lasted for less than a month.
The 14-point agreement stipulates that a 2019 constitutional declaration be the basis for a political transition in Sudan as well as the implementation of the Juba peace agreement brokered by President Kiir.
On the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA), the team will follow up with the status of the security arrangements, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) agreements, and refugee return program and recovery projects plan which have not been implemented since October 2020.
Though the government and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-N) began the enforcement of the security arrangements in September in the Blue Nile State, the process stalled one month later in October.
“We agreed to have joint forces in Darfur, then we have forces in the training centres according to the implementation matrix of the security arrangement,” said Gatluak.
President Kiir has been determined to end Sudan’s civil war that has run for more than 17 years and claimed thousands of lives and displaced many more Sudanese people.
Following the failure by the regional and international community to end the conflict in 2019, Kiir took up the role arguing that Sudan and South Sudan know better their conflicts as formerly one entity.
In October 2020, Kiir brokered the agreement between the Sudanese government and armed opposition groups, bringing relative peace and stability in neighbouring Sudan.
