South Sudan’s warring leaders agree new power-sharing deal after five-year-long conflict
More than 2 million people have since fled the country in Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, while millions of others have been left near famine
South Sudan’s warring leaders have agreed to share power once again in the latest effort to end a five-year civil war, officials announced on Wednesday, days after the US said it was “sceptical” the two men whose rivalry has killed tens of thousands could lead the way to peace.
South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, announced the agreement between President Salva Kiir and armed opposition leader Riek Machar to reporters in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
The agreement initialled on Wednesday will be signed on August 5, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed said.
Kiir will lead South Sudan’s government during a transitional period and Machar will return as first vice-president, Sudan’s official SUNA news agency reported.
The opposition can “live with” the agreement, but it will fail if early steps such as security arrangements aren’t implemented, said Manasseh Zindo, who has been directly involved with the negotiations for Machar’s group.