The leader of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani, has welcomed the approach of African regional leaders to give another 15 day ultimatum to the warring factions in South Sudan to reach an agreement on outstanding issues and seal a final deal.

Speaking on Saturday, Yakani said this recent pressure on the warring parties to accept peace is good but wished that this ultimatum should hold, rather than the previous ones of 45 and 60 days, which were extended.

Last week, South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar and his rival Salva Kiir met under the auspices of the regional bloc IGAD in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their talks failed to result in a final deal but ended with announcements of “progress” and an extension of 15 days to finalize the agreement.

“This act by the regional leaders of IGAD demonstrates that they are interested in ensuring that South Sudan returns to peace and stability. The unfortunate situation is always that the South Sudan warring parties are not firm on their position, recently a lot of shifts in position were witnessed,” said the civil society leader.

“This is through the tactic of giving pre-conditions prior to negotiation always,” he added.

“We wish that the leaders of the warring parties have the sense of feeling the suffering of the people of South Sudan. Their continuous giving of pre-conditions prior to negotiation is subjecting the South Sudanese to continuous death and suffering, why?”

He added that CEPO is concerned that failure of this round of negotiations could be followed by massive military confrontations in South Sudan which will be accompanied by serious human right violations and loss of lives.

“CEPO believe that the 7th round of the negotiation will succeed if the warring parties accept to apply the principles of compromise and accommodation in order to pave the way for peace,” Yakani said.

File photo: Edmund Yakani during a peace march in Juba

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