General Thomas Cirilo’s holdout alliance returns to negotiating table

ROME – South Sudan’s holdout opposition alliance faction, the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance – Thomas Cirilo (SSOMA-TC) has returned to the negotiating table in Italy after withdrawal over clashes with government forces earlier this week, according to the government delegation there.

On Tuesday, the Cirilo SSOMA faction walked out of talks after it accused the government of attacking several holdout opposition positions in the country’s Central Equatoria state that resulted in the displacement of several civilians.

Barnaba Marial Benjamin, the deputy chief negotiator and spokesman of the government delegation there said in a statement quoted by the Eye radio that Cirilo has returned to the security workshop which is being conducted by the ceasefire monitoring body, CTSAMVM.

“I would like to inform the…people of South Sudan that the technical workshop is going on successfully and that both the government and SSOMA are cooperating in trying to enhance the process,”  the official said.

“This morning they attended the workshop and we continued the dialogue discussing especially the details about the mechanism in which SSOMA will become a part of CTSSAM,” Marial added.

The senior government official further said the workshop which is ending today has “has been a wonderful discussion, and it is going on smoothly.”