Rome talks to resume Wednesday, SSOMA rejects referral of talks to Djibuoti over fear of ‘intimidation’

ROME – Peace talks between South Sudan’s unity government and the holdout opposition group, South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), are resuming Wednesday in Rome, Italy, as the holdout opposition consortium rejects IGAD request for referral of talks to Djibouti, according to an opposition spokesman.

The talks were suspended last month after government and opposition delegates ended the sitting without any agreement.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Sunday morning, Deng Vanang, the SSOMA’s official spokesperson, said the talks will resume on Wednesday with re-commitment to ceasefire topping the round of talks’ agenda.

“The peace talks will resume in Italy on December 2, 2020,” Deng said. “We will discuss the re-commitment of the parties to the talks to the Cessation of Hostility Agreement (COHA) signed in 2017 and recommitted to by the parties during the previous round of talks.”

‘Intimidation’

The opposition spokesman revealed in the interview with Sudans Post that they have rejected a regional request for talks to be moved to Djibouti over fear of what he said would be an intimidation by the regional body.

“We have rejected a regional request to move the talks to Djibuoti and because we don’t want to be intimidated by the region as they did to other opposition group during the Khartoum peace talks in 2018,” he said.

SPLM-IO reiterates commitment to process

Separately, South Sudan’s petroleum minister and senior SPLM-IO official Puot Kang Chuol said the group has renewed its commitment to the Rome process saying the main armed opposition group is committed to the achievement of peace all over the country.

“The last resolution is that we reconfirm our commitment to Rome initiative and the delegation of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) shall be leaving tomorrow to attend the meeting in Rome. Our re-commitment to this initiative is that we want the guns to go silent all over the country,” he told reporters following a meeting of the SPLM-IO in Juba on Tuesday.

“We want everybody, all the political forces to be part and parcel of the agreement so that we take our country out of the current that  situation that we are in,” he added.