The Federal Government has taken another major step towards resolving the lingering political crisis in South Sudan, even as it pledged a donation of $300,000 to the unified South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF).
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Thursday by the Special Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Sarah Sanda, stressing that the contribution would be applied to the provision of food items and medicines to the Cantonment Sites, where the different armies from the African Union (AU) are being selected, trained and deployed as SSPDF.
According to the statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs made the donation while on a two-day special visit to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, where he represented President Muhammadu Buhari
The visit according to the statement was in partial fulfilment of Nigeria’s obligations as a Member of the African Union (AU) High Level Ad-Hoc Committee (C-5) for South Sudan and to reaffirm Nigeria’s support to the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
“Onyeama was received on arrival by President of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir Mayrdit. They held discussions on the status of the implementation of the R-ARCSS,” Sanda said.
In a separate meeting with the South Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Awut Deng, the two envoys explored options for the operationalisation of the General Cooperation Agreement signed in January 2019, between Nigeria and South Sudan.
Onyeama also held a meeting with the Chairman and Leadership of the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC) – the Implementing Institution for the pre-transitional activities – and signed an MoU relating to establishing lasting peace in the country.
Earlier, the Minister had paid respect to the memory of the Founder of Modern South Sudan, John Garang where he laid a wreath at his Mausoleum. He also visited Rebecca Nyadeng Garang, widow of the late leader and his children at their family home.
The Minister also engaged with the leadership of the Sudan People Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by Riek Machar; the Ambassadors and Representatives of African States based in Juba; and received a briefing from the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) – the lead Institution for monitoring and evaluating the Peace Process; and finally held a town hall meeting in the Chancery premises with Nigerians in South Sudan.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but the young nation plunged into a civil war in 2013, following a disagreement between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar. The crisis soon assumed an ethnic dimension as wide-spread killings displaced many, causing huge humanitarian crisis. Previous agreements to resolve the conflict had also collapsed.
