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Khartoum: All systems ready for South Sudan peace deal

August 4, 2018 at 11:12 am

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir (L) with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, [Reuters/Adriane Ohanesian]

Sudan has complete the arrangements needed to sign a power sharing agreement between the government and opposition factions in South Sudan on Sunday, a minister has said.

Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and chief mediator for the Khartoum Round of the South Sudan peace revitalisation process, El-Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed, arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, yesterday to meet with President Silva Kiir Mayardit.

Ahmed confirmed the completion of the arrangements in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to sign a power-sharing agreement between the government and the opposition factions in southern Sudan, to take place on Sunday:

The signing of the peace agreement will be confirmed on Sunday at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, with the participation of a number of heads of the states that are members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa (IGAD)

The National Salvation Front (NSF), the armed opposition led by General Thomas Cirillo, announced on Thursday its refusal to sign the agreement, according to a statement by the Front that the Anadolu Agency obtained a copy of.

On 25 July, the government and the armed opposition, loyal to Riek Machar, initialled the power-sharing agreement in Khartoum, amid reservations of other opposition groups agreeing to it.

South Sudan, which broke away from Sudan after holding an Independence Referendum in 2011, has witnessing a civil war since 2013 between the government and opposition movements, most notably the pro-Machar faction.

The war has left some 10,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. A peace deal signed in August 2015 failed to bring an end to the conflict