South Sudan's Presidential Advisor, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin [Left] shakes hand with SSOMA's Pagan Amum as Paolo Impagliazzo, Sant’Egidio secretary-general looks on in December 2020 - Courtesy

The Non-Signatory South Sudan Opposition Group has issued a joint statement calling on the government to reconsider its decision and join the consultative meetings scheduled for Monday, next week.

On November 21, the government announced it was suspending its participation in the Saint’ Egidio peace talks, saying the alliance of opposition groups was buying time to prepare for war.

But the groups denied having used the period of relative ceasefire to prepare for aggression.

They also said the planned meeting is not a peace talk, but a consultative meeting proposed to take place in Rome on 28^th Nov. 2022 to discuss a Round Table Conference.

It says the initiative was calling for an inclusive Roundtable Conference of all South Sudanese to address the root causes of the conflict and to stop all wars and violence in the country.

“The Non-Signatory South Sudan Opposition Group together with all member organizations of the National Consensus Forum are committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict in South Sudan in a Round Table Conference of South Sudanese Stakeholders,” reads the statement.

The groups who are not part of the 2018 peace deal, comprise the National Salvation Front, South Sudan United Front, and the Real SPLM.

Others are UDRM led by Ustaza Tut Doap, NDF-PF by Ambassador Ajawin, and SSNMC headed by Alex Yatta Lukadi.

The group says they regarded the government accusations as “baseless” calling it “a pretext to pursue its agenda of waging war and scuttling any efforts to bring about lasting peace to the people of South Sudan.”

The office of the president is yet to respond.

However, the Presidential Affairs Minister, Dr. Barnaba Marial Benjamin in his Monday letter invited the Secretary General of Sant Egidio, Paolo Impagliazzo to Juba to discuss the government’s concerns.