Civil society activists give their opinions on latest extension of the transitional government. (-)

A group of civil society organizations are demanding political accountability from signatories to 2018 peace agreement, as the transitional government commences its extended two-year mandate until early 2027.

Cabinet Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro announced in a statement on February 21 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.

In a response, Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said citizens have lowly welcomed the extension due to limited political commitment and sincerity among the leaders.

“We feel that this time around we need to demand political accountability from our leaders in the government and the leaders of the party signatories to R-ACRSS because this is the fourth extension of the transitional period,” Yakani said.

“The newly extended transitional period, 2025, 2027 was very lowly welcomed by the citizens due to the experience of previous transitional periods, which resulted to the postponement of the scheduled national general elections and as you are aware I said this the fourth one almost twice the elections were a bit postponed.”

According to the new timeline, the transitional period is expected to end with elections in December 2026 and a newly elected government in February 2027.

Lona Merekaje, Executive Director of South Sudan Democratic Engagement, Monitoring, and Observation Program, lamented lack of political responsiveness from the leaders to implement the 2018 peace agreement.

“The extensions are not necessarily our interest, but we are cornered because of lack of their responsiveness or lack of leadership from their side to make sure that we implement what is set for the transitional period,” Ms. Merekaje said.

“It’s our hope and belief that this time around, they are able to implement in as much as we didn’t agree for them to have the extension. We hope that they will be true to their own. words and their own convictions.”

“Otherwise, we have completely lost interest, we have completely lost trust, and our thinking is that they’re just running the country as they wish. And as I said earlier, they’re running the country as a private member’s club. This must stop.”

For his part, Bol Deng Bol, Executive Director of Intrepid South Sudan, urged the peace parties forming the transitional government to demonstrate commitment this time in order usher the country to lasting peace and democracy.

“The tradition of the R-ACRSS always continuing to extend and avoiding to end the whole transition with the democratic elections is something very unfortunate that South Sudanese have to deal with while having no choice in it,” he said.

“This is because that agreement has given the parties that have signed it almost the whole responsibility to decide whether to extend it again, whether to incorporate other groups or not. So, it is really unfortunate that the parties are very much bent on perpetual expansion of the same agreement.”

Troika diplomats in South Sudan have further urged the transitional government to take urgent steps to implement critical provisions in the 2018 peace deal, warning “there no time to waste” if the country has any intention of transitioning to democracy.

The envoys of U.S., UK, and Norway pointed to lack of significant or consequential progress by 2018 peace parties in implementing their peace commitments, in a joint statement at the 39th plenary meeting of peace monitoring body.

They said the announcement of another extension in September 2024 was a disappointment. However, the envoys added it was not a surprise after years of repeated lack of breakthrough on steps pledged in the roadmap drafted in 2022.