By Bida Elly David
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has called on South Sudan to implement 2018 revitalized peace deal to have peaceful elections.
IGAD delegation led by Executive secretary, Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu made the call while wrapping up a three-day visit in Juba,
The visit aimed at assessing implementation of the peace agreement on the resolution of conflict in South Sudan.
Spokesperson of IGAD Secretariat, Patience Nyange revealed holding fruitful meetings with stakeholders of the peace agreement, including the presidency.
“Some of their commitments were to do with peaceful plans for the conduct of elections; we have been speaking to a number of stakeholders, trying to look at how far we have come to that,’’ Nyange told reporters at Juba Airport.
She underscored that the IGAD boss, during the meeting, emphasized the crucial need for the peace stakeholders to consider the time frame of the roadmap for elections.
“We looked at the stand of the constitutional amendments, the bodies, and other things that have been done and those that have not been done,’’ she noted.
Dr. Gebeyehu’s mouthpiece underlined that all parties and other stakeholders to the agreement demonstrated commitment towards implementing the agreement in letter and spirit.
“The position of IGAD is for us to be able to go back and consolidate all the information that was gathered from various positions and officers,’’ Nyange highlighted
Based on their gathering, the spokesperson said IGAD will be able to give their findings, which will have recommendations as to how to guide the way forward on the transition to democracy.
According to her, their mandate as IGAD was to engage with all stakeholders, see how far they had gone, and later sit again to see the length of the timeframe for elections.
“All the leaders have really committed with understanding of everybody’s wants and desires for peaceful South Sudan; we saw commitment really during our three days,’’ she emphasized.
According to Nyange, all the commitments and agreements and the parties to dialogue within this period, as well as the road that leads to December 2024 and the elections in 2024, have been deliberated.
“We were very happy with the president’s statement that South Sudan will be safe and will not go back to war under his leadership,’’ she noted.
Nyange highlighted that IGAD is going to develop a complete report on the commitments they gathered during their meetings with the peace partners.
“We will be able to do a report that will include all the different stakeholders that were included in the last three days, and the commitment thereafter will be presented to the heads of the summit,’’ she concluded.