JUBA (HAN) February 16, 2016 – Public Diplomacy and Regional Stability Initiatives News. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir will go ahead and announce a transitional government of national unity on Friday despite his rival Riek Machar’s unwillingness to travel to Juba.
According to reports, President Kiir is expected to announce a government of 16 ministers, including two former detainees and two additional ones from other political parties other than Dr Machar’s faction if its leader declines to honour a seven-day ultimatum to return to the country.
However, the South Sudan-based lobby Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation’s executive director, Mr Edmund Yakani, told a news conference in Juba Monday that an interim administration without Dr Machar poses doubts as to whether the parties to the peace agreement were ready to honour the peace or not.
The opposition leader has conditioned his return on the demilitarisation of Juba and integration of police units.
This, according to him, was as per the peace deal signed by the two principals.
Last week Dr Machar, who is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, also appealed to the international community to help transport his 3,000 security personnel to the capital in readiness for their integration into the joint police force.
The same week, the government had identified some locations for Dr Machar’s forces to be stationed in.
Mr Yakani urged the parties to speed up security arrangements and avoid any inconveniences that delayed the implementation of the peace.
“If the partners to the peace agreement can move faster in implementing the peace, this means a lot to the lives of the innocent citizens that are suffering in due to the absence of the peace,” he stressed.
Dr Machar has already been designated the First Vice-President ahead of the inauguration of the new transitional government.
Theeastafrican
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