UPA Spokesperson Lual Dau speaks to Eye Radio's Dawn Show. January 27, 2025. (Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio).

JUBA, Central Equatoria (Eye Radio) —The United Peoples Alliance (UPA) has condemned the government’s decision to end the Tumaini Peace Initiative, a move the opposition group says does not surprise them.

On July 30, the head of the government delegation to the Kenya-led South Sudan peace process, General Kuol Manyang Juuk, declared the Tumaini Initiative as dead, stating that the opposition involved in the talks “has no case.”

Gen Kuol, who is also the senior Presidential Advisor, said the United People’s Alliance wants to do away with the 2018 revitalised peace agreement.

In a statement released by UPA Secretary General Lual Dau, dated August 4, the alliance strongly criticized General Kuol, the government’s chief negotiator, for declaring the talks a “dead process.”

Dau attributed the collapse of the initiative to the government’s “anti-peace attitude.”

“The leadership of UPA is not surprised that the Government of South Sudan has intentionally and single-handedly destroyed the Tumaini Initiative,” Dau said.

The UPA pointed to a series of actions it claims demonstrated the government’s lack of commitment, including an abrupt change in the government’s first delegation as negotiations neared completion.

He stated that the second delegation’s alleged dishonoring of previously agreed-upon protocols.

UPA Secretary General says an “abrupt walkout” from the talks on the pretext of needing “further consultation” and to prepare for the “illegitimate extension of the ARCSS.”

Dau also accused Juba of orchestrating a “coup against the R-ARCSS and the SPLM-IO” by illegally detaining First Vice President Riek Machar and other SPLM-IO leaders, as well as the “unconstitutional removal” of officials like General James Wani Igga and General Daniel Awet.

According to the UPA, these actions, along with the “unpopular National Security Act,” expose a broader pattern of repression that has turned South Sudan into an “authoritarian state” where civic space is limited and opposition voices are suppressed.

The UPA vowed to continue its struggle for “sustainable peace.”