By Bosco Bush
Tumaini Initiative has suffered a setback as South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance (SSOMA) and other opposition groups rejected attempts by government delegation to amend parts of the previously signed peace protocols.
Speaking during the relaunch of the talks on Wednesday, head of government delegation, Gen. Kuol Manyang Juuk said the team intended to review the protocols within the spirit of reconstruction, reconciliation and peace and should not cause alarm.
“We have reviewed the Tumaini Initiative protocols and recognized its potential to address gaps in the Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS). Therefore, we must avoid duplication and fragmentation. To me, it must not be treated as a stand-alone agreement, but rather a complementary to the agreement. This alignment will ensure coherence, streamline implementation, and avoid unnecessary bureaucratic structures that undermine all the existing ones,” he said.
He said integrating the Tumaini into the agreement would ensure a unified approach to peace and governance.
However, the opposition groups rejected the attempt maintaining that talks should restart from where ended in Juba without renegotiating the already signed protocols.
In a statement yesterday, barely two days into the resumption of the talks [SSOMA] said, the government delegation reiterated the position of “anti-Tumaini elements who are hell-bent on dismantling the Tumaini Consensus.”
This position of the government delegation, SSOMA said, rules out any possibility of approaching the negotiations with open minds to conclude the talks with a viable, realistic and implementable framework for peace to exit the troubled and unending extensions of the R-ARCSS.
The opposition group further blamed Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Dr. Elia Lomuro who doubles as the government delegation Rapporteur – calling him a ringleader of anti-Tumaini group.
“We are deeply shocked by comments made by the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Hon. Martin Elia Lomuro, a new government delegate to the Tumaini talks and a ringleader of the anti-Tumaini group,” the statement stated.
“By presenting the position of its anti-Tumaini groups, the reconstituted R-TGONU delegation has openly reneged on the Tumaini Consensus, negotiated and agreed by the former delegation of the same government, the opposition, and stakeholders and witnessed by representatives of the Government of Kenya, IGAD and the Community of Sant ’Egidio.”
“Their actions also dismiss completely the Joint Communique of the two Presidents of Kenya and South Sudan issued in Juba on 6 November 2024, that recognized the completed protocols and called for finalizing the Tumaini Peace Initiative within two (2) weeks,” read the statement.
The group appealed to the Mediation team, the region, and the international community to prevent the reconstituted R-TGONU delegation from jeopardizing the significant strides made by the Tumaini Peace Initiative.
The group stressed their unwavering dedication to finalizing the Tumaini Consensus, a crucial step in safeguarding South Sudan from further turmoil and fragmentation.
Analyst view
Political analyst, Prof. Dr. Luka Biong in a Facebook post, stated, that such conflicting views on the agreed protocols from the parties—will certainly derail the peace process.
“No doubt renegotiating the protocols already agreed by the parties will certainly set an unhealthy precedent and open Pandora’s box,” stated Biong.
The analyst gave an account of the Abyei Protocol that was renegotiated by the parties to the 2005 Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the intransigent and ill-intention of the Government of Sudan to deliberately kill the Protocol, which has resulted in the political predicament that the people of Abyei currently face.
Unlike the parties to the CPA, Prof Biong said, the parties to the Tumaini Initiative share a common objective of a peaceful and stable South Sudan.
“Regardless of the intention of the RTGoNU for renegotiating the initialled protocols, it will be in the best interest of peace that the Opposition Groups to listen at least to the suggested changes,” he said.
“Although the metaphor of opening Pandora’s box might bring about great troubles or misfortune, it could also hold hope. If the suggested changes in the initialled protocols are with good intentions,” he added.
On the other remaining protocols such as the responsibility-sharing and protocol on elections, the scholar pointed out the need to incorporate policies that will halt further extension of the transitional period, particularly Article 8.4 of the R-ARCSS not to be used in future to extend the transitional period and postpone elections unless under new political infrastructure.
The Tumaini Peace Initiative, a high-level mediation effort launched in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 9, 2024, aimed to bring together all holdout groups that had not signed the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS).
After a nearly five-month hiatus, the initiative has resumed its critical mission to foster peace and stability in South Sudan. Its primary objective is to engage with the holdout groups and encourage their participation in the peace process.
Before the halt, parties to the peace process under the former government delegation made a breakthrough and signed at least 9 Protocols in July 2024.
These include General Principles, Protocol on Humanitarian Access and Support, Trust and Confidence-Building Measures, Permanent Ceasefire, Security Arrangements and Reforms, Communal Conflicts, Armed Civilians and Land Disputes, and Guarantors.
Others are, Justice Sector Reform, Transitional Justice, and Accountability, Permanent Constitution-Making Process, Economic Recovery, Resource, and Financial Management Reforms