Talks designed to draw up a number of South Sudan’s states and their boundaries failed to make progress this week, chair of the talks and South African Deputy President David Mabuza said on Thursday.
Mabuza, who was in Juba for the talks from Monday to Wednesday, was appointed to facilitate a consultative meeting of the parties to the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan.
However, at the end of the process by the Independent Boundaries Committee, the parties could not agree on the number and boundaries of states, Mabuza said.
The adjourned meeting would now reconvene within the next two weeks to allow the parties to make consultations with their principals and constituencies where necessary, and to conduct further negotiations among themselves, he said.
According to the deputy president, the resolution of the issue of the states and their boundaries is expected to pave the way for the formation of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity within the current extended time of pre-transition.
His office described the failed meeting as “cordial, and that it was held in a spirit of coming to a workable solution on principles guiding the decision on the number of states and their boundaries for the North African country.”
Mabuza and other special envoys who joined him in facilitating the consultative meeting of parties said they were pleased with the commitment of the party negotiators to finding solutions that respond to the unique reality of South Sudan.
“It was therefore encouraging for me to sit around the table with parties with strong and divergent views, willing to shift from their original positions, where necessary, for the sake of peace in their country,” Mabuza said.
NM/jn/APA