Ethiopia Remains Committed for Formation of Transitional Gov’t in S. Sudan

Addis ababa ENA November 16/2019 Ethiopia said its commitment has remained solid to realize the formation of the transitional government in South Sudan, which extended by 100 days.

It is the second time that the pre-transition period by another 100 days. The deadline to form the transitional government was mid May 2019.

Speaking to ENA, Nebiyat Getachew, Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Ethiopia that has been supporting the efforts will continue as committed as before.

Ethiopia as a member of IGAD and neighboring country has been exerting maximum effort to end the civil war and realization of the transitional government, Nebiyat said.

“Since the South Sudanese parties agreed to establish a transitional government, many IGAD member countries have been closely following the situation and were on the ground to support the transition in the country. If you see Ethiopian role in these pre-transition efforts, our country has been giving tremendous technical and material support for the arrangement of security force which considered as a critical area,” he said.

Noting that the extension was granted due to request from the parties themselves and other mediators, Ethiopia will continue to extend its support in the pre-transition effort.

Affirming that Ethiopia will consolidate the assistance to the security arrangement plan, which should lead to the establishment of a unified army, Nebiyat said “Ethiopia has been playing a critical role in arranging and reestablishing the military force.”

Nebiyat noted that the extension helps them to buy time to reach agreement on key outstanding issues particularly related to security arrangements.

“Some critical tasks are still not completed, including issues related to security arrangements, establishing boundaries, governance and the integration of forces. I hope this 100 day is enough to the rival parties of South Sudan to ensure the implementation of the security arrangements,” he said.

According to spokesperson, as part of last September’s ceasefire agreement, forces from the warring sides are expected to form a national army of more than 80,000 soldiers; however, it doesn’t happen so far.

He said “Ethiopia, as a sister country and chair of IGAD will extend the all the necessary assistance to South Sudan in the efforts towards realizing the formation of the transitional government in the given days."