Citizens welcome President Kiir’s initiative to meet Machar

Some South Sudanese citizens in the capital Juba are welcoming President Salva Kiir’s initiative to reach out to First Vice President Riek Machar and his assurances that he’s committed to fully implementing the 2018 peace agreement.

This was after government forces surrounded Machar’s house for more than 12 hours earlier this week before withdrawing.  President Kiir sent the SPLM Interim Secretary-General Peter Lam to meet Machar on Tuesday, to reassure him that the president is committed to implementing all provisions of the peace deal, especially unifying the forces and their command structure. 

“The two have committed themselves to harmonize their positions on the issue of the command structure of the organized forces once the team from Khartoum comes back; those discussions will continue,” Lam said.

“He (President Kiir) is also working on how the mechanisms, especially how the IO members in the mechanisms can return so that peace can continue to be implemented. There’s no reason for alarming our country, our leaders are working together.” He added.

Puok Both Baluang, spokesperson in the office of the First Vice President confirmed that President Kiir has committed to addressing all the issues the SMPLM–IO raised on security arrangements. 

“And also, the president’s willingness to have a direct engagement with the First Vice President in regards to the peace implementation, and the second one was the readiness of the president to address all the issues raised by the SPLM IO components in the security mechanisms, CTSAM and RJMEC to be resolved and addressed so that they can return back to attend the meetings of these security mechanisms,” Baluang told The Insider. 

 Citizens have welcomed President Kiir’s assurances to the SPLM–IO of his pledge to address contentious issues that led to the withdrawal of SPLM-IO from security mechanism meetings. 

Juba resident Moni Tabitha says sending Peter Lam Both to meet with Riek Machar shows Kiir’s genuine willingness to implement the peace agreement. 

“Also the fact that the FVP responded positively saying he does not plan to bring the country back to war means that he is also willing to implement the agreement that they both signed.”

 “As citizens, we want both parties to keep their promise of not sending this country to war because we have really fought enough, we need to develop this country, we need to see new things in this country, and we need peace as South Sudanese,” Tabitha said. 

Patrick Godi, another resident of Juba, says it is important that Kiir and Machar engage in dialogue consistently and stick to their promises to keep South Sudan peaceful. 

“It’s important that the government stick to the promises that they have made to the people that they will not take the country back into war, President Kiir has said that, Riek Machar has said that. 

“We want to see this not just as mere words but as actions. We want to see progress in the implementation of the security arrangements, this violation of the cessation of hostilities and the ceasefire will stop and we will have a unified army that will take the security of the whole country,” Godi emphasized. 

Godi says whenever unilateral decisions are made it backfires and returns the country to an atmosphere of war, something he says South Sudanese citizens least expect at a time when efforts should be made to fully implement the peace agreement.