South Sudan’s First Vice President, Riek Machar, called on President Salva Kiir on Thursday to expedite the allocation of funds to critical institutions within the transitional unity government in order for them to carry out their mandate and consolidate peace.
“The president (Kiir) has to go through the (peace) agreement listing all institutions that are established by this peace agreement and have a check of institutions that have not been budgeted for. Failure to budget for them will be a failure to deliver peace dividends that are needed by people,” Machar said during a peace dialogue in Juba.
Machar singled out the Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Peacebuilding, both of which are allocated to his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO).
“Each institution has a role to contribute to peacebuilding, failure of any one of them to contribute to peacebuilding will affect the process of peace implementation,” he added.
Machar urged newly formed state governments to consolidate peacebuilding efforts, noting that establishing a policy framework allows all institutions to contribute to the country’s peace. Stephen Par Kuol, Minister for Peacebuilding and a member of the coalition government’s SPLM-IO, stated that his ministry has already held several peace retreats across the country.
Kuol stated that peacebuilding should not be left to the ministry alone. “We have been doing peace retreats to create harmony among people in the states; we all know that it is not the leadership of the ministry of peacebuilding alone that is responsible for implementing the agreement and bringing peace,” Kuol explained.
He went on to say that peacekeeping is a collaborative effort involving all government institutions and partners.
“South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013 after a political disagreement between Kiir and his then Vice President Machar caused a split within the army, leaving soldiers loyal to the respective leaders to fight,” Kuol stated.
Tens of thousands of people were killed and over two million were displaced as a result of the conflict, both internally and externally. Under the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, the former warring parties share power in a transitional unity government.