Addis Ababa: South Sudan’s warring leaders have been given an August 17 deadline to agree another peace deal to end 19-month civil war, mediators said yesterday.
Peace talks, led by the eight-nation East African IGAD bloc, have been taking place in Ethiopia almost as long as the war, resulting in at least seven failed deals and ceasefires — all broken within days or hours.
“We hope the parties have travelled a long way and seen the consequences,” top mediator Seyoum Mesfin said, adding a summit would begin on August 5 to agree the deal. Previous meetings have been repeatedly delayed.
The deadline to sign a deal is the latest in ultimatums since the civil war started in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, sacked as vice-president, of attempting a coup. The conflict was ethnic, pitting Kiir’s Dinka people against Machar’s Nuer, and spread. Tens of thousands have been killed, according to the UN.
The last peace attempt broke down in March, with the rebels and government accused of seeking a military solution.
A new proposal to set up an “inclusive transitional government” was adopted yesterday by mediators though many points on power-sharing were rejected by both sides in past talks.
AFP
