JUBA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Friday said the body monitoring its shaky cease-fire with rebels is poorly facilitated and this has caused it to inadequately verify and monitor cease-fire violations amid ongoing fighting in the country.
Martian Elia Lomuro, the Minister for Cabinet Affairs, told journalists that they will petition the regional bloc the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) over the inaccurate and unverified violation reports by the Ceasefire and Transitional Arrangement Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) since eruption of clashes in the wake of the signed Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) on December 21 last year.
"We will go and tell IGAD to either empower CTSAMM to work properly or use the Regional Protection Force (RPF) which is doing nothing here after they gave us a lot of headache, threatening us of arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze on individuals and now they are quiet. What is the RPF doing in this country; use them to bring peace or they go back," he said in Juba.
Lomuro disclosed that they have reported to CTSAMM a total of 31 attacks on government positions since the agreement was signed and that the latest report by CTSAMM in which they condemned violations by the government troops (SPLA) is not consistent with facts.
Lomuro also said that they have since told CTSAMM that they are not allowed to release any report until they investigate with SPLA commanders on the ground.
"I must also tell you that the new chairman of CTSAMM is willing to cooperate with us and he has told us information that we never had before that one of their challenge is that they are not able to act and investigate any of these reports because they don't have resources and manpower," Lomuro said.
The minister added that the monitors also have a challenge of getting protection force that will allow them to go and do investigations.
Meanwhile, the SPLA spokesperson Brigadier Lul Ruai Koang said that since 2017 up to January they have only registered and investigated two cases of rape mostly in Imatong State.
"What we received and heard from the police spokesperson, is that they received reports of sexual violence against young women during the Christmas period and it was mostly done by youngsters who were excited about the peaceful Christmas we had. Those are being handled as criminal cases by the police," he said.
South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel chief Riek Machar led to split within the SPLA, leaving soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines.
The 2015 peace agreement to end the conflict was weakened after outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016 caused the SPLA-in opposition rebel leader Machar to flee the capital.
