“I am committed to peace and the implementation of the agreement in order to overcome the challenges of humanitarian and economic crisis in the country”.
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Rebel spokesman James Gatdet Dak said the rebels’ National Liberation Council endorsed the agreement in a meeting held in the town of Pagak, a rebel stronghold in the oil-reach northern Upper Nile state close to the border with Ethiopia.
The military workshop program showed that participants from the two warring parties will discuss full implementation of the permanent ceasefire and disengagement of forces as well as the establishment of demilitarized zones, withdrawal of foreign forces, disarmament of non-state actors, such as Sudanese rebels in South Sudan and the ceasefire monitoring mechanism. The conflict reopened ethnic fault lines that pit Kiir’s Dinka against Machar’s ethnic Nuer forces.
Machar had also voiced reservations about some power sharing arrangements and other aspects after signing.
South Sudan’s president urged his people Tuesday to “join hands” in implementing a peace deal to end more than 20 months of conflict, after repeated outbreaks of fighting since rebels and the government signed the pact last month.
Since this conflict began, fighting and abuses have forced over 2 million people to flee their homes and thousands of civilians have been killed, often targeted because of their ethnicity or perceived political allegiance.
The head of state, who was expected to shed light on the dire economic situation in the country, however said he “purposely left out” in his speech a portion of economic matters because, according to him, it would only “spark debate without solution”. Each side has previously dismissed the other’s accusations as lies.
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The world’s youngest nation, independent since July 2011, South Sudan descended into bloodshed in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused rebel chief Riek Machar, his former deputy, of planning a coup.
