By Fatuma Asha
A South Sudanese Civil Society Activist has appealed to the AU C5 plus leadership to stand in solidarity and firmly with South Sudanese on the implementation of the AU C5 plus resolutions.
Activist Edmond Yakani, Executive Director for CEPO made the appeal following President Salva Kiir’s bilateral talks with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on the AU C5plus partially discussed on the sidelines of the 39th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly.
During the session, the leaders held discussions on continental priorities, including water management and sanitation as well as derive a roadmap for the upcoming December 2026 elections in South Sudan.
Activist Yakani appealed to the AUC5 plus leadership to take responsibility for their role and end the considered years of suffering of South Sudanese citizens who had continued to feel the effects of the conflict in the country.
“We call upon the leadership of AUC5 under the chair of South Africa and other member states to stand up to their responsibility for solidarity with the citizens of South Sudan,” Yakani urged.
Yakani, also made a direct appeal to the political parties to avoid the trend of confrontation and finger pointing and reaffirm their commitment to the resolutions of the AUC5 plus.
“We’re calling upon South Sudan leaders in their various political parties to commit themselves to implement the resolution of AUC5,” Yakani noted.
“We have seen for the last seven years a tactics of dragging feet and deciding not to implement what sometimes people commit themselves to,” he said
In September 12, 2018, international bodies led by IGAD brokered the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), as a direct response to the collapse of the 2015 peace deal.
They also brokered peace deal due to the subsequent resurgence of violent civil war in July 2016 with the aim of ending years of atrocious fighting between SPLM and SPLM-IO.
The process involved 15 months of negotiations including the Khartoum Declaration designed to create a more realistic, inclusive power-sharing framework than its predecessor.
They established a new, 36-month transitional period to restructure the army, amend the constitution, and prepare for democratic elections.
However, recent surge in conflict across the country including the detention of Former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar have placed the deal in threat with many activists including international bodies saying it could collapse before the 2026 elections.
“We have seen similar declarations in the past, and they have died a natural death,” Yakani stresses
He added that, “we hope that the resolution of the AU C5 plus will never die a natural death like what we have seen in the past,”
He urged the leaders to commit themselves to engage in an inclusive manner with the respect of legitimacy and the status of the signatories to the provisions of the 2018 peace agreement