Gen, Thomas Cirilo and others pose for a photo with IGAD Envoy to South Sudan and Sant' Egidio representative in Rome, Italy|Courtesy

The South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance (SSOMA), led by General Thomas Cirilo, has expressed its readiness to engage with the government of South Sudan in efforts to achieve what the group describes as “inclusive and sustainable peace.”

This announcement follows a two-day meeting between the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan, Ambassador Ismail Wais, and the opposition group.

The discussions, held on March 19th and 20th, concluded with SSOMA deciding to remain outside the Tumaini Initiative.

The meeting was facilitated by the Community of Sant’ Egidio, with the presence of Kenyan Ambassador to Italy, Fredrick Matwang’a.

A statement from SSOMA read, “During the consultation meeting, SSOMA expressed its readiness to engage with the Government of the Republic of South Sudan with the goal of achieving inclusive and sustainable peace.”

The group further agreed that IGAD and the Community of Sant’Egidio should facilitate a pre-consultative meeting with the government in Juba at the earliest opportunity.

While SSOMA had previously agreed to the Tumaini Initiative, they preferred that the talks be held in Rome , citing security concerns in Kenya.

They also emphasized that the stalemate in the 2023 Rome talks was not about the location or mediation but rather a disagreement over the agenda.

The South Sudanese government had proposed focusing on security reforms, political and governance issues, and justice, while SSOMA called for a more inclusive round-table discussion.

Stalled Tumaini

Tumaini Initiative stalled in January after Juba requested for a break as it’s delegation prepared for the launch of the extended transitional period.

However, the United People’s Alliance, formerly SSOMA accused Juba of reneging from the process they said had already gained momentum.

At the time, the parties had agreed on three-gender items to disucss including clarity of the names of the parties, addressing the  root causes of conflict and relationship between R-ARCSS and Tumaini in terms of repetition and implementation mechanism, and the last being responsibility sharing.