South Sudanese president dissolves parliament over peace deal | Politics News

Activists took the move in line with the 2018 peace deal, saying it was long overdue but also expressed distrust.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has dissolved parliament and paved the way for lawmakers from the country’s anti-civil war parties to be nominated under the 2018 peace agreement.

Kiir’s decision was announced on public television on Saturday evening, but no date has been set for when the new parliament will begin.

The formation of the new legislative body was part of an agreement signed in September 2018 by Vice President Kiir and Riek Machar, killing 380,000 people and displacing four million on the opposing sides during the five-year civil war.

Activists and civil society groups welcomed the dissolution of parliament, saying it was long overdue but also expressing distrust.

“It’s a welcome development and we hope to undo it [will] it has also paved the way for a long process of re-establishing parliament, ”said Jame David Kolo, President of the South Sudan Civil Society Forum.

“Civil society is being frustrated and no longer believes that even if the parliament is rebuilt, it will be a very viable parliament.”

Under the 2018 agreement, the new assembly will have 550 MPs, most of them – 332 – from the SPLM party governed by Kiir. Parliamentarians will not be elected by different parties but will be appointed.

The dissolution of parliament came on the eve of a visit to the capital Juba, which will send Donald Booth to South Sudan.

“The United States is particularly concerned about the slow implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on conflict resolution in the Republic of South Sudan, ongoing violence and deteriorating economic and humanitarian conditions,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Kiir and Machar formed a coalition government on February 22, 2020, after nearly a year of delays.

However, few provisions of the truce have been respected, and analysts have warned of a return to war.

A country rich in oil remains highly underdeveloped and poorly managed.

According to the International Hunger Warning System Half the population of South Sudan It faces a “high level of acute food insecurity,” and more than 92,000 people living in various areas – including the Great Pibor Administrative Area, north of Bahr al-Ghazal and Warrap – “had conditions such as hunger in early March 2021”.

Despite the peace agreement, brutal communal conflicts – mostly over cattle trials – continue, with more than 1,000 dead in violence between rival communities in the last six months of 2020.