Breaking: Rome Talks end with no agreement!

The four-days peace talks in Rome between the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) and the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) of South Sudan ended today, October 12, with no agreement.

The two sides, however, initialized documents on the Declaration of Principles (DOP) and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA), which will be used as bases for talks that will resume soon in Rome.

In the past few days, reports have been circulating that an ‘agreement’ between the parties had been reached and that they had ‘recommitted themselves’ to CoHA. In fact, the parties had only initialed the documents pending the outcome of the Declaration of Principles for DOP which has not been agreed upon.

The DOP is like a road map that needs to be agreed upon so that, together, the parties can reach that end-goal which is peace. Without it, everything is irrelevant

SSOMA believes that recommitment to CoHA and being part of CTSAMV does not end the conflict in South Sudan. However, the parties need to discuss Declarations of Principles (DoP) that will determine the basis and the framework that will guide the peace process going forward.

SSOMA, an alliance of four political parties that did not sign the revitalized agreement because it (the revitalized agreement) did not address the root-causes of the South Sudan crisis, insists that peace can only come to South Sudan if the root causes are holistically and comprehensively addressed.

“The DOP is like a road map that needs to be agreed upon so that, together, the parties can reach that end-goal which is peace,” said one observer.