Ter Manyang, the Executive Director of the Juba-based Center for Peace and Advocacy or CPA - COURTESY

A civil society activist is urging the transitional government to present a realistic matrix for implementing the extended roadmap, including for the security arrangements and drafting of a permanent constitution before elections in December 2026.

Ter Manyang – the Executive Director of Center for Peace and Advocacy – said parties should demonstrate their willingness to fully implement the agreement for the last time.

According to him, this is by speeding up the implementation of the unimplemented and remaining provisions in the revitalized peace agreement.

Manyang said the flare up of armed violence in several states is due to the absence of security arrangement, and cautioned that leaders should put the citizens’ interest above their own.

“The first priority should be security arrangement. If you look at what is going now about the political contention happening in Western Equatoria, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Upper Nile, and Eastern Equatoria, it is absence of security arrangement,” he said.

He said if there is political will among the peace parties, the unified forces would have been all graduated and deployed to take control of the security in the country.

“The second priority is the constitution making process. I think the constitution making process is supposed to guide all those things where the people will go for elections, people will compete, they will elect you based on your ideas.”

“The leaders are not working for the interest of the citizens, they are working for the interest of themselves, and they are working for the interest of their associates and their relatives, they don’t work for the next generation in the country.”

On February 21, Cabinet Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro announced in a statement that the transitional period had officially been extended effective from the next day.

Dr. Lomuro said political leaders agreed to extend the government to provide time for key reforms including the drafting of a permanent constitution, implementation of the security sector reforms and adequate electoral preparations.

But civil society organizations and diplomatic missions have cast doubts over the transitional government’s willingness to transition the country to democracy, and demanded political accountability from the 2018 peace parties.