The violence has prevented farmers from planting or harvesting crops, leading to food shortages across the country. In July 2014, the UN Security Council declared the food crisis in South Sudan to be the “worst in the world.” In the first months of 2017, famine was declared in South Sudan, with nearly five million people at risk of food insecurity. Since then, critical food shortages have continued, with UN officials warning that 2021 could be the worst year to date, with more than eight million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The government did not respond to TNH`s repeated requests for comment, although acting army spokesman Santo Domic Chol said the government was committed to peace and had no opposition forces. “It`s really hard to say whether there is peace or not,” said Bongan Allan, 45, whose five children were abducted during a violent outbreak in February 2020. “We are staying here because people are taking away our cattle and our children are starving.” At the same time, al-Burhan said his team “came to the negotiations this time with an open heart and determined to achieve peace for Sudan, which complements what began in previous agreements.” “Olony could bring peace to the region, but his appointment could also trigger further violence if not well managed by the government,” said Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment Organization for Progress, a civil society group. Although the signatories to the peace agreement have pledged to create an enabling environment for the delivery of aid, humanitarian flights have been blocked and hundreds of tons of food aid have been stolen from Pibor and Jonglei, where people need it most. Sudan`s transitional government has been holding peace talks with rebel groups for two years. Al-Hilu`s group participated in the negotiations that led to this agreement, but did not sign the final agreement. The national army, a central element of the 2018 agreement, is expected to be created within a few months. But the process has dragged on for more than a year and a half, with about 40,000 troops still untrained and another 47,000 awaiting completion. Fighting between government forces and the National Salvation Front – a rebel group that refused to sign the peace agreement because its leader believes power is too concentrated in the hands of Kiir and De Machar – has displaced thousands of people in and around southwest Yei.
“We reaffirm our commitment to a peaceful solution and negotiations and mechanisms to resolve the causes of the conflict in Sudan,” al-Hilu said. Sudan`s prime minister said he was “shocked” by the killings, calling the use of live ammunition against peaceful protesters a “crime.” In 2020, Sudan`s transitional authorities and another rebel alliance signed a peace agreement. In late December 2013, the UN Security Council approved the rapid deployment of approximately 6,000 security forces, in addition to the 7,600 peacekeepers already present in the country, to support nation-building. In May 2014, in a rare move, the Security Council voted to shift the mission`s mandate from nation-building to the protection of civilians and empower the UN force to use force. Since the redefinition of protection, the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan has faced extreme challenges due to the deteriorating security situation and its complex relationship with the Government of the Republic of South Sudan. The United Nations authorized the deployment of four thousand additional peacekeepers as part of a regional protection force in 2016, although their arrival was delayed until August 2017. “As various parts of the peace agreement stagnate, the risk increases that some opposition forces will return to conflict or try to seek peace on their own terms,” said Alan Boswell, South Sudanese analyst at the International Crisis Group. Ongoing disputes and the lack of power-sharing agreements between many of South Sudan`s rival factions in the civil war that ended in 2018 have raised doubts about the government`s ability to prevent violence ahead of national elections scheduled for 2022. An armed insurgency in the south of the country led by Thomas Cirillo, who heads the group known as the National Salvation Front (NSF), poses a serious threat to civilians and continues to threaten the peace process. Moreover, the country`s two leaders – Kiir and Machar – have been the main instigators of rival factions in the civil war that began in 2013, and peace between them is fragile. “Despite some missed opportunities, it is never too late to revive the peace process so that humanitarian assistance is more effective and conditions are created in which development activities can have a wider and greater impact,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Director for South Sudan. While the international community has provided in-kind contributions – such as food for military quarters – to support the peace process, South Sudan`s major foreign donors have avoided directly funding the deal.
The insufficient resources allocated to the agreement further complicate efforts. Dozens of soldiers, mostly opposition soldiers, have starved to death in townships and training centers while waiting to join a new national army, while officials of the peace deal in Juba have been driven out of hotels because the government is not paying its bills – $10 million is owed to nine hotels. The political leaders who led South Sudan to independence – and then to war – are still in power today, ruling in a weak coalition forged as part of a peace deal. Sudan`s transitional government and major rebel groups have launched a new round of peace talks, officials said, the latest attempt to end a decades-long conflict in the East African country. Under the threat of international sanctions and after several rounds of negotiations supported by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Kiir signed a peace agreement with Machar in August 2015. As a first step towards ending the civil war, Machar returned to Juba in April 2016 and was re-sworn in as vice president after spending more than two years outside the country. Shortly after his return, violence erupted between government forces and opposition factions, which again displaced tens of thousands of people. Machar fled the country and was eventually imprisoned in South Africa. In 2017 and 2018, a series of ceasefires were negotiated and then violated between the two sides and other factions. Meanwhile, little has been done to unite the soldiers who have fought against each other for years.
In Pibor, government army commander Korok Nyal said 150 soldiers from the Murle ethnic group had left a training ground in the nearby town of Bor, fearing they would be targeted by troops from other ethnic groups. In the southern state of Central Equatoria, another commander told TNH that his men had no contact with opposition soldiers. Like other urgent and crucial provisions of the peace agreements, the convening of parliament has long remained unfulfilled, undermining trust between political rivals who formed a weak coalition after the war. Although the peace agreements have paused the worst of the bloodshed between conventional armies, armed conflicts between rival ethnic groups in undivided areas have intensified, demanding a number of civilian casualties not seen since the war. “We. call on the country`s political leaders to seize this opportunity to make the hopes and dreams of ten years ago a reality by ensuring the lasting peace necessary for full recovery and development. Machar also drew criticism from members of his own party. Some question his commitment to the peace agreement, as well as his appointment of friends and family members to key positions in the unity government. Others say he is neglecting voters and troops in the countryside after not leaving Juba for nearly a year. As the agreement stagnates, a humanitarian crisis is intensifying. Deadly violence, torrential rains and a shrinking economy have left more than 100,000 people facing catastrophic levels of “phase five” hunger and tens of thousands at risk of starvation, according to a report released in November by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). “If we have money, let`s use it to implement peace,” Yien said.
“[The government] is not using it for good things, it is using it to destroy the peace agreement.” Their ceasefire still largely holds, but it is being tested as politicians fight for power and promises of peace remain unfulfilled. “The road from war to peace has been long and difficult and much remains to be done for people to exercise the democratic right they won a decade ago,” Nicholas Haysom, head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said in a statement. The increase in inter-ethnic violence and attacks, the threat of a failure of the peace process and the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in much of South Sudan have added new urgency to improving security and meeting the basic protection needs of South Sudan`s civilian population. More than a year after South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former opposition leader Riek Machar formed a unity government, progress has been slow in implementing the country`s main peace agreement, which was signed in 2018 and ended a civil war that began in 2013. .
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