JUBA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A senior South Sudanese official on Monday said the international community is now keen to finance the implementation of a peace deal thanks to the commitment by warring parties to pursue reconciliation.
Michael Makuei Lueth, minister of information and broadcasting, said the government has already prepared a budget as requested by donors to fund the upcoming Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) in May.
"They are positively responding and they are only waiting for us to avail them with our budget. It's us the government actually processing the budget, the opposition did not give us their budget," Makuei told reporters in Juba.
He added that this came as results of improving relation between the South Sudanese government and the troika countries which comprise of Britain, United States and Norway.
According to Makuei, the warring parties require about 60 million U.S dollars for security arrangements that will involve setting up of cantonment sites, training of unified forces and transportation of troops.
"On the other hand the government of South Sudan is working hard to make sure that we deposit some cash and we will see how much the government deposits," he said.
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir mediated the revitalized peace deal between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Khartoum that led to the eventual signing of the final agreement in Ethiopia in September.
South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.
A peace agreement signed in 2015 to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital, Juba, forcing Machar to flee into exile.
The United Nations estimates that about four million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally.
