UK Parliament

The UK parliament has welcomed the IGAD proposed face-to-face meeting between President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar.

The meeting is one of the recommendations from IGAD Council of Ministers’ extra-ordinary session that was held last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The two leaders have expressed willingness to meet each other for the sake of peace in the country.

A member of UK parliament representing Scunthorpe, Nic Dakin, called on his country to work to help peace prevail in the country.

“That is good news, indeed…Sadly, in the history of South Sudan, we have been here before. That is not a reason for us not to make better progress this time,” he told the UK parliament during a debate on South Sudan on Tuesday.

During the last round of the High Level Revitalization Forum, parties agreed to recommit themselves to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement that was signed in December 2017.

Dakin said the agreement has “repeatedly” been violated and “leaders on all sides of the conflict have refused to make the compromises necessary to make peace in South Sudan”.

The MP called for concrete steps to be taken to punish peace spoilers through sanctions, arms embargoes and other measures.

“Hopefully, if they say they will make it different, they will follow through with those promises, otherwise those promises have no value to the South Sudanese people,” added Dakin.

Meanwhile, UK’s Minister of Africa Harriet Baldwin said the only way to move forward without the escalation of suffering and without consequences for generations to come is through putting as much effort as they can into the peace process.

The MPs also called on parties to honour the ceasefire and compromise for peace.