South Sudanese parties urged to respect agreement reached in Addis Ababa

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Mediation Team has urged the South Sudanese parties to respect and expeditiously implement the cessation of hostilities agreement they signed on Jan. 23 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Speaking at the Extra-Ordinary Summit of IGAD on Friday at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin, Chairperson of IGAD Mediation Team, said failure to fully commit to the cessation of hostilities agreement or to ensure compliance by all armed groups operating in areas controlled by the government or opposition forces poses a threat to the next phase of the peace process. Stating that the humanitarian crisis has reached serious proportions in that country, Ambassador Seyoum underlined the need to address it swiftly to prevent increased stress on the region. "We commend the South Sudanese Government for releasing the seven of the detainees. However, expediting the process of the remaining four detainees still poses a challenge," he said. The IGAD Mediation Team also implored the South Sudanese parties to urgently address the critical humanitarian crises, provide protection and assistance and explore durable solutions to the predicament of refugees and IDPs in full collaboration and coordination with local and international humanitarian organizations, he said. Commending the parties to the conflict for recently concluding the agreements on the cessation of hostilities and the status of detainees, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya stated that since the signing of the two agreements there have been accusations and counter accusations of non-compliance to the agreements. The president urged the parties to put the interest of South Sudanese people first and comply with the agreement with a view of alleviating the situations. Stating that the two agreements pave the way to next phase of negotiations on the comprehensive resolution of all outstanding political issues, Uhuru appealed to the parties to commit themselves to the negotiations with a view to realizing national healing and reconciliation in the South Sudan. Smail Chergui, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, underlined the imperative to foster political dialogue and broad consensus on how to tackle collectively the various challenges facing South Sudan. The commissioner voiced the AU support to IGAD in the operationalization of the monitoring and verification mechanism, which he said is important to prevent fighting and create conditions for securing humanitarian access to help internally displaced person (IDPs) and refugees in South Sudan. "Considering the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis still unfolding in South Sudan, it is my hope that not only such deployment will assist the parties to stop fighting but would also create a necessary condition for securing a humanitarian access so that IDPs and refugees could be assisted," said the commissioner. Being aware of the tremendous challenges facing the young nation and its endeavor to reconstruct from the bottom up, the AU will stand by the country's side in this effort, noted Chergui. "As we did before in the context of the ministerial committee for the post conflict reconstruction of South Sudan, we will go out and mobilize support from within and outside Africa and in this regard, I wish to seize the opportunity to reassure once again our brothers and sisters of South Sudan that we continue to stand by their side," he said.