SSOMA warns South Sudan faces imminent collapse, calls on AU Envoy Kikwete to back new inclusive peace initiative
A high-level delegation from the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) met with H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, the African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea and former President of Tanzania, in Dar es Salaam on 22 May 2026 to warn of South Sudan’s imminent collapse and to press for a new and inclusive peace initiative that brings all stakeholders to the table.
The SSOMA delegation was led by Compatriot Thomas Cirillo Swaka, Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the National Salvation Front/Army (NAS) and Chairman of SSOMA, and Amb. Emmanuel Ajawin, Secretary General of SSOMA and Chairman of the National Democratic Movement – Patriotic Front (NDM-PF).
The delegation congratulated H.E. Kikwete on his appointment, describing it as timely given the acute and deteriorating situation in South Sudan.
A Frank and Constructive Exchange
SSOMA described the meeting as “frank and constructive.” The delegation told Kikwete directly that South Sudan is approaching imminent collapse unless a genuinely inclusive political process is launched without delay.
“South Sudan needs a comprehensive peace initiative that is inclusive, involving all the stakeholders in the country, to agree on a political road map to resolve the conflict,” the SSOMA press statement read.
The delegation drew attention to the deep political impasse and the contradictions between the parties to R-ARCSS 2018 as evidence that the existing framework cannot, by itself, rescue the country.
SSOMA has made its position clear. It is willing to engage. The burden now falls on the AU and the international community to build a process worthy of that willingness.
Three Proposals Placed Before Kikwete
SSOMA laid out three concrete proposals during the consultation.
First, it called for an accommodative and reconciliatory road map to rescue South Sudan from imminent collapse and political disintegration.
Second, it called for a comprehensive peace process that brings all stakeholders to the table – not only the signatories to R-ARCSS – to collectively agree on a way forward.
Third, SSOMA proposed the launching of a New Comprehensive Peace Initiative built on the foundation of existing documents, including R-ARCSS 2018, the Rome Initiative, the National Dialogue and the Tumaini Initiative. The proposal envisions these frameworks serving as a common basis for dialogue rather than competing processes.
The Stakes Behind the Diplomacy
The meeting in Dar es Salaam took place against the backdrop of South Sudan’s deepening political crisis. The Juba regime has unilaterally amended R-ARCSS, First Vice President Riek Machar remains under house arrest, and elections are being prepared without any of the agreed democratic conditions in place. SSOMA was never a signatory to R-ARCSS and has long maintained that any durable settlement must go beyond that agreement – precisely because a deal struck without all the armed parties and political movements could never, on its own, hold South Sudan together.
That is the crisis SSOMA carried into the room with Kikwete. Its three proposals are not abstract diplomatic positions – they are a direct response to what is unfolding on the ground. The call for a New Comprehensive Peace Initiative that draws on R-ARCSS, the Rome Initiative, the National Dialogue and the Tumaini Initiative reflects a practical reality: no single agreement and no partial set of signatories can resolve a conflict of this breadth.
H.E. Kikwete brings experience and credibility to the AU’s facilitation role, and his appointment has been welcomed by opposition movements and civil society alike. The question is whether that credibility will be used to build a process that is genuinely inclusive – or whether it will be deployed to manage regime interests and call it peace.
SSOMA has made its position clear. It is willing to engage. The burden now falls on the AU and the international community to build a process worthy of that willingness.
