Angeline Teny of IO chatting with the Minister of Information, Michael Makuei ahead of the signing ceremony on Friday in Khartoum/Alhadi Awari/Eye Radio/July 6, 2018

Party leaders to the Khartoum peace process have expressed delight on transitional security arrangements they signed on Friday in Khartoum.

Government’s spokesperson Michael Makuei said the security deal marks the beginning a real peace in South Sudan.

“This agreement marks the beginning of the end. It marks the beginning of real peace in South Sudan and with this, I call upon all the people and all the opposition groups to respect and abide by the permanent ceasefire and with this, I say congratulations to the people of the Republic of South Sudan for this peace which has been achieved,” Makuei said.

For her part, Angelina Teny, who signed on behalf of the SPLA-IO said she feels the agreement has addressed their security concerns.

“We think that this is the big achievement because it’s one of the points we as SPLA/M IO were talking about it, and we are always saying we must contain all the forces, but in the end we did compromise. We said because is very important for the peace to prevail in the country we compromised and we said let us create and build a national army,” Angelina said.

Yen Mathew, a senior member of the National Salvation Front describes the agreement as unique and will allow for a lot of freedoms of the citizens.

“This agreement is totally different is not the same as usual agreement, this agreement allows for a lot of freedoms and then it dichotomizes the current status queue of the security forces which is good, again the agreement gives the opportunity for the diversified forces which hasn’t been there,” Yen said.

Meanwhile, Dr.Lam Akol, the chairperson of the National Democratic Movement said the agreement is the first step toward a lasting peace in the country.

“I think it’s a first step towards resolving all the issues regarding security arrangements, as you will remember this actually about four points that were outstanding that resolved today, and they will be edited to the other issues on security matters so that we have the final text that will be in cooperated to the up-coming peace agreement,” said Akol.