{AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – joining a host of other voices – urged Kiir to sign onto the deal, which has already been signed by Kiir’s rival, rebel leader Riek Machar.}
The ensuing political infighting later intensified into a full-fledged civil war between the rebel army, led by Machar, and government forces. “We have seen agreements signed before that haven’t been adhered to, and I’m sceptical about how this peace deal would be enforced”, said Emmanuel Kisiangani, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Nairobi.
Kiir asked for another 15 days of discussions, shrugging off pressure to meet a Monday deadline for a deal.
Tens of thousands have been killed since the conflict started in mid-December 2013.
The government of the world’s youngest nation has refused to ink the power-sharing deal, despite the threat of sanctions and mounting worldwide frustration at the failure to seal a peace accord.
Kiir’s ethnic Dinka people are pitted against Machar’s Nuer, and the ethnic nature of the violence has alarmed the worldwide community.
Speaking separately, the Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor Rizik Zackaria Hassan said President Kiir would only sign the peace deal if the terms are agreeable to the South Sudanese government.
Like a barometer of conflict, the UN said Monday that the number sheltering inside its peacekeeping bases had risen by a third in just over a month to almost 200,000 civilians.
“We mourn the death of comrade Moi Peter, and extend our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues”, said Garang who is the former editor in chief of the government’s suspended Destiny newspaper.
Andrew Cuomo says there’s widespread agreement on the need to build a new Hudson River rail tunnel but that the federal government must agree to pay “the lion’s share” of the estimated $14…
With peace efforts in South Sudan in tatters, fighting resumed in parts of the country between government troops and rebel forces, a South Sudanese military spokesman said Wednesday.
“Even if Machar goes into the government, it doesn’t mean the conflict will stop”, Kisiangani said.
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the situation in South Sudan where President Salva Kiir, speaking at a news conference on 16 August, threatened to have journalists murdered if they “work against their country” and where reporter Peter Moi was gunned down outside his office in the capital three days later.
Tiitmamer said the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African block leading the negotiations, made a mistake in setting a deadline for an agreement, saying the parties should have been given more time to work out an agreement themselves.
{{Source: TV News Room}}
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