Dr. Martin Elia Lomoro, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs - PPU 17th Jan. 2024

Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro says in a meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir on Tuesday, the presidency also stated that the Nairobi peace talks should not contradict the provisions of the peace agreement.

The ongoing Tumaini Initiative in Nairobi between the unity government and non-signatories to the peace deal.

Martin said the Presidency has also directed the unity government to conduct a comparative analysis between the Tumaini provisions to the provisions of the revitalized peace agreement.

The analysis will then be brought to the Presidency to issue a directive for further discussion.

“On the Tumaini initiative, all the parties signatories to the agreement were engaged and reviewed the protocols that were initialed and based on the analysis we found that in the Tumaini there were provisions that contradicted the R-ARCSS,” Dr Lomuro said.

“There were provisions also that repeated what is already contained in the R-ARCSS and the roadmap,” he said.

“Based on our analysis the presidency meeting decided that the Tumaini initiative is a good initiative that is intended to strengthen the implementation of the R-ARCSS.

“The Tumaini initiative should be aligned to the provisions of the R-ARCSS, and any provision that contradicts the R-ARCSS should be removed.”

Tumaini stalemate

The Tumaini Initiative stalled since mid-June after the SPLM-IO withdrew from the talks, citing the recently signed protocols, proposed institutions that are parallel or replacing some of those under the R-ARCSS.

The opposition also said the Tumaini undermined the sovereignty of South Sudan by establishing five institutions with the head and deputies to be appointed by the regional body, IGAD.

These include the Security Supervision Mechanism, Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism, Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, National Transitional Committee, and Strategic Defense and Security Review Board to be co-chaired by the parties to the 2018 agreement.

According to peace party, the initiative had taken the role of a funder, supervisor, coordinator, convener of a donor conference, funder manager, monitor of the agreement, guarantor and governing authority.

Following its withdrawal, government delegation to the Tumaini flew to back to Juba and briefed the President on the process.

Two days later, the delegation met with Vice President Dr Riek Machar and resolved that the matter would be addressed at the level of the presidency.

A week ago, parties to Tumaini Initiative said they were awaiting SPLM-IO to rejoin the unity government in the Nairobi peace talks to initial three additional protocols.

These include justice and accountability, economy, and constitutional-making process.