Coronavirus is threatening the well-being and lives of the forces in cantonment and training sites, warned Dr Ismail Wais, Inter-governmental Authority on Development or IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan.
He added that with the threat at the cantonment site, the pandemic could impact negatively on the implementation of the revitalized agreement.
Dr Wais noted that the spread of the virus has restricted mobility of the mediators yet the peace process requires trust-building through face-to-face meetings.
He said ‘the restrictions imposed for Covid-19 do not portend well for the implementation as there is real danger of lack of participation by the mediators”, officials and parties’, The East African reported.
Dr Wais was addressing a virtual meeting organised by the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa under the topic: ‘Rethinking the Covid-19 Response in South Sudan’.
“With unification and deployment of forces delaying and many forces confined in cantonment and training sites, misbehaving armed groups are likely to continue posing security threats”, he observed.
Dr Wais said Covid-19 pandemic in South Sudan has hit the poorest hard and challenging few health facilities.