IGAD suspension spells doom on peace implementation

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is demanding over $9 million in membership arrears from South Sudan, which has resulted in its suspension recently.

This suspension comes at a moment when Juba is struggling to bring lasting peace to its population through the implementation of the 2018 peace deal brokered by the bloc.

According to a letter written by the IGAD Executive Secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu, and addressed to President Salva Kiir dated September 16, 2021, South Sudan’s assessed contribution for the financial year 2021 was $1,630,539 as per a committee of ambassadors who met on March 23, 2021.

The secretariat further confirmed that South Sudan’s arrears as of December 31, 2020, were $8,152,096, amounting to over $ 9 million.

Tasks in danger            

IGAD’s priority in South Sudan was to engage the youth and women’s groups on matters of inclusivity in peace implementation as well as the regional programmes. It also focused on education, free movement of goods and people, cross-border health and livestock programmes, supporting infrastructure development and regional trade. 

However, it is unclear how the regional bloc would help the country with the peace process, especially the security arrangement provisions that are critical to the overall peace in the country given the membership issue.

According to a previous comment by an activist about the importance of the IGAD in the country’s overall peace process, the suspension could cost South Sudan a great deal in its effort to fully implement the agreement.

According to the activist, the first batch of the necessary unified forces will require IGAD’s presence to bless the process as the grantor of the deal.

“Now there is transition in South Sudan through the peace agreement; we are going to graduate the unified forces, and the unified forces have to be confirmed by the leadership of IGAD.”

“So it means that if we are to graduate the unified forces, then we need the grantor clearance from IGAD,” Edmund Yakani, Executive of Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), said in October.

Besides, IGAD will be expected to help South Sudan hold free, fair, and credible elections at the end of the transitional period come 2023. This, therefore, means that without the presence of the bloc, the country faces challenges.

Furthermore, the country, through the support of IGAD, repatriates thousands of its displaced persons from neighbouring countries like Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Other critical pending tasks, such as the census, the establishment of the hybrid court, and reforms in the financial system, all require the support and involvement of IGAD.

Article 14 of the IGAD agreement states that any member state which, without the dispensation of assembly, falls in arrears of its financial contribution to the authority for the preceding two years shall be barred from speaking and voting at the meetings of experts and policy organs of the authority.

It further states that the country shall be barred from presenting candidates for managerial positions at the Secretariat and, where the authorities secure bank overdraft facilities to cover such contributions, they shall be liable to pay interest accruing on such overdrafts.

However, while addressing the press, Michael Makuei Lueth, the Minister of Information, said the cabinet resolved to clear the arrears the country owes to IGAD.

“It is worth mentioning that we have been suspended from IGAD simply because we have not paid our dues and there are so many vacancies which we are supposed to occupy.  About 14 of them, which are supposed to be our positions, are unable to occupy them simply because we have not paid our dues for long,” Makuei told reporters in Juba.

But according to the letter by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on December 10, 2021, as a clarification statement attributed to the national Minister of Information regarding the suspension of South Sudan from IGAD pointed out that the country, despite the suspension, remains a member of the bloc.

“Indeed the Republic of South Sudan has been barred from exercising its voting rights and other benefits at the IGAD owing to non-payment of its annual membership contributions.”

“This however does not mean suspension of membership from IGAD and the Ministry would, therefore, like to reassure the public that our country remains a full member of IGAD,” the statement read in part.