East African leaders yesterday traveled to South Sudan to witness South Sudanese President Salva Kiir’s expected signing of a peace deal with rebels, amid threats of UN sanctions in the absence of an accord.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who has hosted months of talks aimed at ending the 20-month war that has killed tens of thousands of people, arrived for the signing ceremony due later in the day.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s office said he left yesterday morning for South Sudan’s capital Juba, where he was to be joined by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who sent troops to back Kiir during the war.
Photo: AP
South Sudanese presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told reporters that Kiir “will sign the peace agreement,” but the government has said it still has “reservations” about some parts of the power-sharing deal.
At least seven ceasefires have already been agreed to and then shattered within days — if not hours — in the world’s newest nation, which broke away from Sudan in 2011.
The deal to be signed yesterday would give rebels the post of first vice president, which means that rebel leader Riek Machar would likely return to the post from which he was sacked in July 2013, six months before the war began.
Machar already signed the deal on Monday last week.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday piled pressure on Kiir to do likewise, warning it was ready to “act immediately” if he did not.
“We will take immediate action if he does not sign, or if he signs with reservations,” said Nigerian Ambassador Joy Ogwu, whose country chairs the council.
The African Union warned that any deal had to be not only signed, but also implemented, calling on both sides to “commit to genuine reconciliation” and to “put the interests of South Sudan and its people above narrow interests.”
South Sudan’s civil war erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, sparking a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the country along ethnic lines.
The conflict has been characterized by ethnic massacres and rape.
The deal before Kiir commits both sides to an immediate end to fighting and the implementation of a “permanent ceasefire” within 72 hours.
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