By Philip Buda Ladu
The main opposition group, Sudan people’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) has rejoined the security mechanisms bodies and assured its full participation in the meetings of the peace and security monitoring bodies.
The SPLM/A-IO late last month tendered a letter to the Chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, (RJMEC) suspending their participation in the meetings of the ceasefire monitoring body, CTSAMVM including the RJMEC.
The leadership of SPLM/A-IO earlier stated it was discouraged by the level of violations committed against their positions by the SPLM-IG, citing lack of action from CTSAMVM and RJMEC as the security and peace monitoring bodies to hold perpetrators of violations accountable.
Tensions also heightened between Dr. Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir over the past few days as the President issued a decree for the unification of the command of unified forces relinquishing three positions in the Army Command Structure and two positions in the National Police Service Command to the SPLM/A-IO and SSOA.
However, Dr. Riek Machar’s SPLM/A-IO political camp rejected the decree barely one day upon its issuance, calling it a unilateral decision from President Kiir to reconstitute the command without any consensus being reached by the principals to the agreement amidst ongoing negotiations.
The stalemate over the implementation of the security arrangement provisions of chapter two triggered international peace partners’ attention, and called for dialogue to resolve the impasses.
The evolving events around the 2018 R-ARCSS’ sluggish implementation prompted Sudan as the head of IGAD and guarantor to the Revitalized peace pact to come up with a proposal on the unified command of the unified forces.
On Sunday the 3rd of April 2022, the Sudan’s proposal on the unified command sharing ratio agreement that gives the incumbent government 60 percent and the opposition groups; SPLM/A-IO and SSOA 40 percent was inked in Juba by the parties to the 2018 agreement.
The SPLM/A-IO then lifted its suspension of participating in all the security mechanisms on Sunday evening shortly after the parties to the 2018 Revitalized Peace agreement signed a deal bringing to an end the deadlock over the unified forces’ command structure.
The IO announced the lifting of their suspension of participation in the security mechanisms in a press statement issued and signed by its Chairman and Commander in Chief of the SPLM/A-IO Dr. Riek Machar.
“Following the signature of the agreement of unification of the command of forces, today in Juba, the SPLM/A-IO leadership hereby lifts the suspension of participation of SPLM/A-IO in meetings of security mechanisms namely; JDB, JTSC, JMCC, SDSR Board, CTSAMVM, SSM as well as the National Transitional Committee (NTC) and Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) with immediate effect,” the statement read.