South Sudan: Machar to attend Addis meeting

Former rebel leader, Riek Machar will be in Addis Ababa to discuss the implementation of South Sudan’s peace agreement, which is facing multiple delays.

One of his rebel movement’s leaders confirmed on Friday that their team will participate in the meeting slated for 2 and 3 May.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development invited the parties to the conflict which erupted in December 2013 killing 400,000 people to meet in the Ethiopian capital to discuss “the status of implementation of the peace agreement and the way forward”.

President Salva Kiir, on the other hand, will not go to Ethiopia. But the government will be represented by its negotiating team.

In mid-April, the Peace Agreement Monitoring and Evaluation Commission expressed concern about delays in the implementation of the agreement signed last September in Addis Ababa by Kiir and Machar.

Under the terms of the agreement, a transitional government of national unity must be formed by 12 May, in which Riek Machar would once again hold the position of Vice-President.

But sensitive issues, such as the cantonment of armed groups or the number of regional states, have not yet been resolved.