UN chief urges S. Sudan’s Kiir to endorse peace agreement

August 18, 2015 (JUBA) – The United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the signing by former South Sudan vice president Riek Machar and the former detainees of the compromise peace agreement initiated the East African regional mediators to end the conflict that has engulged the country since December 2013.

“He takes note that President Salva Kiir initialled a copy of the agreement with some reservations [and] expresses his strong hope that President Kiir will sign the agreement by the end of the 15-day deadline,” his spokesperson said in a statement.

The South Sudanese leader reportedly initialled the agreement on Monday, but did not sign it and instead asked for an additional 15 days to consult with his constituencies.

His rival and the country’s former vice-president Machar, however, signed the peace agreement alongside Pagan Amum, a representative of the former political detainees.

Ki Moon, in his statement, thanked the regional bloc (IGAD) and its mediation team for its “tireless” efforts to assist the parties reach agreement. The UN chief, according to the statement, was encouraged both regional and international consensus in support of the agreement, which the world body also signed as a witness.

He reaffirmed the UN’s continued readiness to work with IGAD, the African Union and other international partners to finalise the agreement and move swiftly towards its implementation.

“The Secretary-General is deeply pained by the horrendous suffering of South Sudanese civilians and calls on all belligerents to immediately cease all hostilities, uphold international human rights and humanitarian law, and extend their full cooperation to UNMISS and to the Humanitarian Country Team’s life-saving activities in South Sudan,” further stressed the statement.

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), over 730,000 people have fled into neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, which has seen the highest arrival rate this year. About 1.5 million people, it said, are internally displaced and live in overcrowded protection-of-civilians sites run by its South Sudan mission (UNMISS).

(ST).