South Sudan peace talks set to resume this week

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

July 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan peace talks will resume later this week in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in what is expected to be the last round of talks for the negotiating parties to finalize a peace deal, an opposition official told Sudan Tribune on Monday.

Deputy representative of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) to Ethiopia and to the African Union (AU), David Dang, said a new round of peace negotiations between South Sudan’s government and the armed opposition faction led by former vice-president, Riek Machar, will resume on Friday 24 July.

East African regional bloc, the intergovernmental authority on development (IGAD), which mediates between the two warring factions has communicated to both sides the timetable for the resumption of the fresh talks.

Consultations among the IGAD special envoys had begun on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Adis Ababa, and will continue till 22 of July.

With regard to agenda for talks, Dang said a new draft agreement will be circulated to both conflicting parties on Friday.

The fresh round of talks will resume under a new IGAD-Plus initiative which will incorporate the UN, EU, China, the Troika (UK, US, Norway) as well as five African countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Chad, and Rwanda).

The IGAD-Plus mediation will have 19 chief envoys unlike three previously.

IGAD lead mediator, Seyoum Mesfin, last month told Journalists that the mediation has prepared synopsis of the compromised document which is a summary of the parties’ reflection and consultations with their constituencies.

According to Mesfin, the six-page synopsis touched all major issues including the critical issues of governance and power sharing on central institutions as well as power sharing on the troubled areas mainly in greater Upper Nile state.

It also called for immense reforms on issues such as on governance of politics, system, and economy and oil revenue.

With regard to security arrangement, if both sides reach an agreement to form transitional government, the compromised document calls on the two sides to complete integrating the armies by mid-term of the transitional period.

The conflict in the youngest African nation erupted in December 2013 when president Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of allegedly plotting a coup, an accusation the latter dismissed as false.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced an estimated two million people.

(ST)