The 34th Extraordinary Summit of the IGAD Heads of State and Government was held on 8th February 2020 in Addis Ababa under the chairmanship of H.E. Dr. Abdalla Hamdok, Prime Minister of the Republic of Sudan and issued a communiqué on the South Sudan peace process and the locust invasion that hits the region.
Regarding the peace process in South Sudan IGAD said, “further extension of the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) is neither desirable nor feasible.”
Only twelve days are left before the end of the one hundred-day extension of the deadline for the formation of R-TGoNU on 22nd February 2020.
Despite the relentless mediation efforts of the regional Special Envoys from IGAD and South Africa on the issue of the number of states and their boundaries, the mediation effort has hit a deadlock, reads the communiqué.
IGAD said the issue of the number of states and their boundaries, which is a sticky issue in the South Sudanese Peace process, “is an internal South Sudanese matter and hence solution should come only from the South Sudanese people.”
Regarding the locust invasion, the summit underscored the need to work and coordinate with neighboring regions particularly gulf states and countries in the Arabian Peninsula as well as the international community in eradicating the pest and address the broader aspects of climate change in the region.
IGAD also decided to share information and best practices through the IGAD Secretariat to coordinate and build the necessary capacity in combating the locust menace to predict, monitor and control the spread of new swarms.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Heads of State of Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Djibouti, Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya, and H.E. Hirut Zememe, State Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
