For the second time IGAD countries are powerfully present to find a lasting peace in South Sudan after they succeeded to bring peace in former Sudan when they put a lot of efforts to make sure the two parties signed the CPA.

But for the current situation in South Sudan it seem to be a bit different and much more complicated to the extent that it’s too difficult to predict whether or not IGAD will be successful to bring peace once again for many reasons among them the following:

1- Some of IGAD countries are part of this conflict there is no logical way to call them neutral for example Sudan was mentioned in many reports that they are supporting the rebels in one way or another and to complicate the matters they agreed to open a coordination office for Machar rebels a move that is not in line with the cooperation agreement that they signed with South Sudan  and Uganda has forces that are fighting on the ground along with government forces against Machar rebels while Djibouti recently opened a coordination office for Machar rebels , in short the above examples are obstacles that would prevent the two warring parties from trusting some if not all the members of IGAD.

2- Some of IGAD members are indirectly benefitting from the war in South Sudan for example Ugandan troops are not in South Sudan for free which is advantage for Uganda and for Sudan they will be much more comfortable with the current situation in South Sudan since no one will put them under pressure to resolve all the outstanding issues especially Abyei Issue and border contesting Areas among others, South Sudan is busy with its internal War and that is another advantage for Sudan.

3-  Most of IGAD Countries are also suffering from internal Wars in which some of these Wars are not less than South Sudan internal War for example there are destructive internal Wars in Sudan, Eretria, Somalia, Uganda, and Some parties of Ethiopia so in other words these IGAD members lack peace in their own Countries how come they will be able to bring peace to South Sudan?.

4- Some of the IGAD Countries are in tension with one another for Example Eretria and Ethiopia and Uganda and Sudan, Sudan and South Sudan itself, and that situation can bring a lot of contradictions which cannot be harmonized toward one goal.

There are no doubts that CPA was a great achievement for IGAD work in the region but also we cannot deny that IGAD role to make sure that CPA was implemented was very weak so most of the CPA was not implemented and the term comprehensive peace agreement lost its meaning and as a direct result there is war in Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains, Abyei issue is not resolved yet plus many outstanding issues between North and South without resolving these issues the peace is very far from the two countries.

And it’s clear that the history is repeating itself now IGAD was successful to make the two parties sign cessation of hostilities and agree on formation of a transitional government but implementation of these agreements is still a big challenge so what is the use of all these agreements if they are not implemented?.

Therefore South Sudanese government and rebels has to realize that victims of this senseless war are innocent South Sudanese who have got nothing to do with the power struggle which is cause of the war and they should be responsible and make serious steps to bring peace as soon as possible and they should not rest assured that IGAD will do everything.

The world is very different now and politics became a real dirty game if leaders are short-sighted not looking beyond their surroundings, then our people will continue to suffer for no good reason but for their individual interests.

By Bagat Makuac Anguek

File photo: IGAD Heads of State meeting on 13 March, 2014

The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made are the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.