{{South Sudanese president Salva Kiir has called for the immediate approval and deployment of a regional deterrence and protection force to end ongoing violations of the cessation hostilities agreement signed with his former deputy turned rebel leader, Riek Machar.}}
President Kiir made the appeal at the swearing-in ceremony of South African president, Jacob Zuma who was recently re-elected for a second term in office, in Pretoria on Saturday.
Accompanying Kiir is a minister in his office, Awan Guol Riak, and several military officers and presidential aides in a trip many say would be an opportunity for the South Sudanese delegation to engage with other African leaders.
“This is an important function for us to attend because our delegation headed by the president will hold sideline meetings with other leaders and representatives of different governments from across the continent and the world,” Riak told journalists on Friday at Juba international airport prior to departure.
“It will be an opportunity for us to solicit support from these leaders to settle this current conflict. Most of the leaders attending the inauguration of the president, Jacob Zuma, are people with especial attachment or connection with our problems,” the minister added.
A presidential aide also accompanying president Kiir told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that more than 40 foreign leaders were in attendance at the ceremony, including the presidents of Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Somalia, as well as the vice-presidents of several African nations.
The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the president had held sideline meeting with a number of key African leaders in which he stressed that pro-Machar rebel forces would continue to commit ceasefire violations.
“He (Kiir) made it abundantly clearly that the rebels of Riek Machar would never respect [the] cessation of hostilities [agreement] unless a deterrence and protection force is deployed to secure and provide protection during the movement of the monitoring and verification team to track down and report independently the side violating or failing to implement the agreement,” the aide told Sudan Tribune on Saturday from Pretoria.
The aide said president Kiir had also held talks with Zuma during with he asked for the South African president’s support at the African Union to consider deployment of a foreign force.
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