US president calls on South Sudan warring parties to end war

July 25, 2015 (NAIROBI) – US president Barrack Obama who is on a three-day official visit to an East African nation, Kenya, has called on president Salva Kiir’s government and the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by former vice president, Riek Machar, to stop fighting and sign a peace agreement.

“The situation is dire. We agree that the best way to stop the fighting is for South Sudanese leaders to put their country first with a peace agreement that ends the fighting,” president Obama told reporters after talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on Saturday.

President Obama said he had discussions with his host counter-part, president Kenyatta, on the situation in South Sudan and how best others could help in ending the violence.

The US leader who will travel to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Sunday, the venue for the peace talks, is expected to meet with the African Union leaders and discuss the situation in the young country.

Preliminary arrangements also indicated that he may conduct separate meeting with the IGAD chief mediator, Seyoum Mesfin, along with chief negotiators of the government and the rebel faction.

(ST)