US official in southern Sudan to discuss peace deal

Oct 21, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer flew to southern Sudan Friday for talks with regional leaders on implementing a January peace deal.

She was scheduled to meet in the regional capital Juba with senior figures of the former southern rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, including its leader and Sudanese first vice president, Salva Kiir.

Implementation of the January 9 accord that the United States helped bring about slowed to a crawl after the death of former SPLM chief John Garang in a July 30 helicopter crash.

Kiir, who doubles as president of the government of southern Sudan, has vowed to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and ensure implementation of the accord, which ended more two decades of north-south war.

The war, Africa’s longest-running conflict, left some two million people dead and four million displaced.

Frazer was also scheduled to meet Riek Machar, the vice president of southern Sudan and senior SPLM officials, before returning to Khartoum for meetings with the country’s leaders.

(AFP)