January 20th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader and the country’s First Vice President designate, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon said on Saturday that the revitalized peace deal signed by him and his arch-rival President Salva Kiir Mayardiit last year in Addis Ababa is the only way for change and reform in the young African nation.
South Sudan government and opposition groups including the SPLM-IO in September last year signed, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement which collapsed in July 2016.
The signing followed a bold regional and international pressure on different South Sudanese delegates in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to reach a peace deal before an August 5th dateline.
However, following the signing of the agreement, many have doubted the transparency in the peace agreement saying there is no will from the parties to fully abide by its contents with some questioning why some actors in the South Sudan conflict are not convinced to join the process.
However, Machar said on his social media account, Twitter, that this version of the peace agreement offers the parties an opportunity they didn’t have in 2016 in ending the five-year old conflict saying the agreement is the only way forward.
“R-ARCISS gives us the opportunity of mending what we so missed in 2016 and throughout this senseless war,” Machar wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
“Even if it’s not that perfect, R ARCISS is the only way towards changes in the country,” he added.
