Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of UN Mission in South Sudan -Credit: Charles Wote/Eye Radio -14th April 2022

The inter-party dialogue process which started last month aimed at finding consensus towards the end of the transitional period appears to have stalled and given way to Nairobi peace talks, according to the United Nation’s head of Mission to South Sudan.

Nicholas Haysom made the remarks during a meeting of the peace monitoring body, RJMEC on Wednesday.

He said this while citing the observations of  UN Secretary General Anthonio Guterres, IGAD, AU and RJMEC which concluded that the necessary conditions as agreed upon by the parties  in the R-ARCSS had not been achieved on several fronts.

UN, IGAD, AU and R-JMEC had urged the parties to take urgent steps to collectively agree on a “critical mass” of implementation of the requirements necessary for a peaceful, free, fair, and credible elections.

These include full financing of the technical electoral bodies, and the implementation of Transitional Security Arrangements.

Haysom said the inter-party dialogue process appears to have given way to the ongoing Tumaini Initiative in Nairobi.

” While I am encouraged that the Tumaini Initiative has brought into being the Declaration of Commitment signed on 16 May, with seven months remaining before elections, it is critical that the parties find a working formular that gives required attention and impetus to both processes.”