South Sudan on Wednesday said the much-awaited revitalised transitional unity government will be formed on Saturday after the end of the 100 days pre-transitional period agreed upon in November 2019.
Michael Makuei Lueth, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, said that there will be no more extension this time around after the former warring parties failed twice in the past to meet the agreed deadline.
Makuei revealed that all opposition leaders including Riek Machar, who leads the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) are already in Juba and have been accorded maximum protection by the government.
The government and SPLM-IO had been in disagreement over the number of states and boundaries which eventually led President Salva Kiir to reduce the former 32 states he decreed in 2015 to the current ten states favored by the opposition.
Machar’s group, despite welcoming President Kiir’s gesture on the current 10 states, protested the creation of additional three administrative units which include Abyei, Ruweng and Pibor areas.
The parties failed to form the unity government in May last year, prompting an extension until Novemebr 12 which also passed without progress, and they later on agreed to the February 22 deadline.
Machar will take up the position of first vice president alongside other four deputy presidents in the upcoming transitional unity government.
South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013, after President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy Riek Machar leading to fighting between soldiers loyal to the respective leaders.
A peace agreement signed in 2015 collapsed following renewed violence in July 2016 which forced Machar to flee the capital.
