South Sudan’s leaders announced Thursday that the country’s post-war transitional government would remain in power two years beyond an agreed deadline, in a move foreign partners warned lacked legitimacy.
Martin Elia Lomuro, the minister of cabinet affairs, said the decision was taken “to address the challenges that impede the implementation of the peace agreement”, following a 2018 deal to end a five-year civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead.
“Thus a new roadmap has been agreed,” the minister said, speaking in the presence of President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, who formed a unity government more than two years ago after half a decade of fighting.
The world’s newest nation was meant to conclude a transition period with elections in February 2023, but the government has so far failed to meet key provisions of the agreement, including drafting a constitution.
The so-called troika of the United States, Britain and Norway boycotted Thursday’s announcement, pointing out that the government had not consulted all the parties involved in the 2018 deal before announcing the extension.
In a letter to Kiir, the troika expressed “profound concern that fully inclusive consultations must take place with civil society, faith-based groups, business, women’s groups, youth representatives, eminent persons and international partners before the (peace deal) is amended”.
“Whether a roadmap and an extension are seen as legitimate by the people of South Sudan and the international community will depend on an inclusive consultation process,” the letter said.
“We cannot guarantee that we will be able to support a roadmap or extension in other circumstances.”
South Sudan’s lumbering peace process has run into multiple delays, with violence breaking out between Kiir and Machar’s forces as recently as this year.
“The roadmap must demonstrate how another extension would differ from previous ones and include steps for clear progress in setting up the institutions and mechanisms necessary to hold elections,” the troika said.
