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The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has scheduled a visit to South Sudan as the country gears towards end of the transitional period.

The planned visit is one of the recommendations the council drew it says aimed at encouraging the country as it embarks on the end-phase of the transition, and to start the laborious process to the post-transition era.

” [AUPSC] decides to undertake a solidarity visit to South Sudan on the second anniversary of the formation of the Transitional Government on 22 February 2022 aimed at encouraging the country as it embarks on the end-phase of the transition, and start the laborious process to the post-transition era,” the statement read.

Among other things, the council has requested AU commission to undertake three roles as South Sudan gears to the end period of the peace agreement.

These include liaising with the Office of the UN Secretary-General and the IGAD Executive Secretary to coordinate a trilateral evaluation of the electoral and constitution-making needs of South Sudan, and to submit a report of the evaluation within two months of Council’s decision.

The second request is for the commission to conduct consultations on convening South Sudan funding Pledging Conference.

This is in line with Chapter III, Article 3.2.8 of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement which states that the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the UN secretary General shall convene the meeting to raise reconstruction fund to support the RTGoNU.

The council also stressed the need for AU to deploy technical support for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and Security Sector reform programs in South Sudan.

In its message to the peace parties, the council called on the presidency to expedite the reconstitution of national and local level commissions and institutions, the Judicial Reform Committee, and the State Assembly of Western Bahr el Ghazal,

This, it says, will strengthen the executive, legislative and judicial functions of the government both at national and state levels.

The council further encouraged the Presidency to explore all possible avenues to provide the needed resources, including funds and food, to complete the training of forces for the unified national army.

Other outstanding issue it underlined is the need for the parties to resolve issues concerning the unified command and control structure, and force ratios in order to speed up the formation of the armed forces.

The virtual meeting was attended by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Ghana to the AU, Ambassador Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah; Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission for South Sudan, Prof. Joram Biswaro; South Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia, James Morgan and the head of UNMISS, among others.