The U.S. had urged the warring factions to reach a peace agreement by August. 17 or face sanctions.
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The South Sudanese government signed a peace agreement with rebel forces in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, following intense negotiations.
In the meantime Machar, the insurgent chief, issued a press release Saturday that he wouldn’t signal the compromise deal due to last-minute modifications made at a summit in Kampala final week by the leaders of Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Sudan.
The secretary-general of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Pagan Amum, also signed the deal, but mediators said he was not representing the government.
“In the next 15 days, the government will come back to Addis Ababa to finalize the peace agreement”, Seyoum said.
The US was “deeply disappointed” that President Kiir’s government had “yet again squandered” an opportunity to bring peace by refusing to sign the agreement, a statement from US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said.
Machar signed the document, but Kiir refused.
President Salva Kiir said he had been “compelled” to join the talks alongside rebel leaders and regional presidents…
Mr Kiir had sought to scrap a provision that called for consultations with Mr Machar on “powers, functions and responsibilities” he would exercise in any future administration, the official said.
At least seven ceasefires have already been agreed and then shattered within days, if not hours in Africa’s newest country, which broke away from Sudan in 2011. The latest peace accord was brokered by the eight-nation East African IGAD bloc, bolstered by the UN, the European Union, the African Union, China and other players – including Britain and the United States.
South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, descended into chaos in December 2013 when a political row between Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar spiraled into armed conflict that reopened ethnic faultlines.
In a signal of the dire conditions on the ground, the number sheltering inside UN peacekeeper bases has risen by a third in just over a month to nearly 200,000 civilians, the UN mission said Monday.
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A picture taken on July 25, 2015 shows internally displaced women and children waiting for their food ration after a humanitarian airdrop by the World Food Program (WFP) in Unity State, South Sudan.
