Sudanese Prime Minister on Thursday announced the establishment of the awaited mechanism to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Juba peace agreement.
Abdallah Hamdok made the announcement during a High-Level Side Event on Sudan convened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by the United Nations and Norway attended by 24 countries and 8 international and regional organisations.
“We agreed on establishing this independent monitoring and evaluation mechanism that will help us to monitor the implementation of the peace process,” Hamdok told the meeting via a conference call from Khartoum.
In addition to the government and the signatory groups, the key strategic coordination mechanism includes the Troika countries (Britain, Norway and the U.S.), Chad, South Sudan.
The Troika countries last June signed the Juba Peace Agreement as guarantor.
Speaking at the meeting, Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide welcomed the establishment of the mechanism.
“This will be a useful instrument to find workable solutions to address outstanding issues and find workable solutions to issues that arise as peace agreements are implemented,” she stressed.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres underscored that the driving objective of this meeting is to affirm global engagement and support for the Sudanese people.
Guterres said that the Juba Peace Agreement “paves the way for ending Sudan’s long-standing and devastating conflicts”.
He added that important work is underway to implement the Agreement and to reach a deal with non-signatory armed movements.
Different speakers called on the SPLM-N al-Hilu and SLM of Abdel Wahid al-Nur to join the national efforts to achieve peace and implement the national agenda for democratic transition.
In the same trend, the French Special Envoy for Sudan Jean-Michel Dumont called for the resumption of the peace process and the need for a continued international mobilisation to support transition in Sudan.
Hamdok said the talks with the SPLM-N al-Hilu would resume soon and that “serious contacts” are underway with the holdout group without further details.
