Peter Mayen Majongdit, a leading member of the Other Political Parties (OPP), accused the minister of cabinet affairs of driving a wedge between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to allegedly obstruct the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement.
Minister Martin Elia Lomuro is the leader of the National Agenda group, part of the Incumbent Transitional Government of National Unity (ITGoNU) bloc aligned with President and SPLM party leader Salva Kiir when the 2018 peace agreement was signed.
The umbrella group and the National Alliance of Political Parties are under the OPP- a party signatory to the September 2018 peace agreement. Mayen leads the umbrella group while Deputy Speaker Kornelio Kon leads the National Alliance.
Speaking at a press conference in Juba on Friday, Mayen, a former humanitarian affairs minister, lashed out at Lomuro, claiming he has continued to create problems between Kiir and Machar, the two principals of the 2018 agreement. He also claimed Lomuro has instigated what he called hatred between communities.
“He [Lomuro] continues to cause problems and hinder the implementation of the peace agreement and also creates problems between the president and the first vice president,” he said.
“We at OPP perceive him [Lomuro] as a peace spoiler who has intermingled in so many other parties’ affairs, in OPP affairs, previously SSOA, and today he is interfering so much in SPLM-IO affairs,” he added.
Mayen said his group rejects President Kiir’s recent appointment of Lomuro as Secretary General of the High-Level Ad Hoc Committee on Implementing the Revitalized Agreement (R-ARCSS), accusing him of failing the peace agreement and squandering public resources.
“We reject his appointment because Martin Elia has previously been a secretary to the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC). All these past years, he has completely failed to implement anything and has completely failed to account for any financial allocation that was allocated to the National Pre-Transitional Committee,” he said.
He pointed out that Lomuro ensured seven of the peace implementation committee’s 31 members are from his National Agenda group, accusing him of taking ratios from other parties, including the opposition SPLM-IO, due to his closeness to Kiir.
“We believe all those of us who signed the agreement are accountable. We are the ones to be answerable if the transition ends with no election and the country loses legitimacy. We are the ones to answer what happened to South Sudanese, and Martin’s name is not written anywhere in the peace agreement. He has to know that the OPP is back on its feet, and we will uphold the agreement to counter any argument any individual may raise,” he said.
The former minister vowed to expose more information about implementation challenges as a former NPTC member.
Attempts to reach Cabinet Affairs Minister Lomuro were unsuccessful.
Separately, Mayen unveiled the “Juba Initiative of the Parties,” called by the OPP for dialogue among signatories. He said his group would spearhead dialogue to find solutions.
“So we do respect any grievances each and every party may have, including us. We will table our grievances and dialogue on what needs to be done on the implementation of the agreement until elections,” he said.
He called on the region and international community to help parties address issues before elections.
It remains unclear when the initiative will be launched and how many political parties have endorsed it.
Tensions have risen since February, fueled by a breakdown in relations between Kiir and Machar and unilateral moves.
The crisis in the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement deepened when security forces detained Machar on March 26 in Juba. His party called the arrest a violation of the peace deal that ended a five-year civil war killing nearly 400,000 people.
The arrest drew widespread condemnation, including from the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, which demanded Machar’s “immediate and unconditional release” and urged safety guarantees.