Regional power Uganda told South Sudan’s warring factions on Tuesday to put their egos aside and make peace, a day after President Salva Kiir refused to sign a deal to end a 20-month-old conflict.
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Now there is fighting in Manyo County in the state of Upper Nile, close to the border with Sudan, with rebels trying to take areas controlled by government troops, said the spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer.
But it has submitted draft proposals for a UN arms embargo on South Sudan.
“Even in a best-case scenario, peace will never come from Addis Ababa“, said David Deng, research director of the South Sudan Law Society, a civil society organization.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the signing of the deal by the rebel leader and expressed “his strong hope that President Kiir will sign the agreement by the end of the 15-day deadline”.
Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – joining a host of other voices – urged Kiir to sign onto the deal, which has already been signed by Kiir’s rival, rebel leader Riek Machar.
South Sudan’s war largely pits Kiir’s Dinka followers against Machar’s Nuer allies. The ensuing political infighting later intensified into a full-fledged civil war between the rebel army, led by Machar, and government forces.
The various allegations could not be independently verified.
Quite a few rounds of negotiations have failed to finish hostilities which have killed greater than 10,000 individuals and displaced greater than two million, with each side engaged in a struggle of attrition regardless of signing ceasefire offers.
Assailants have reportedly shot dead a reporter for the New Nation newspaper in South Sudan in an apparently targeted attack, days after President Salva Kiir allegedly made a thinly veiled threat to target journalists who reported “against the country”.
US National Security Advisor Susan Rice accused Kiir’s government of a “failure of leadership” and said it had “squandered” another opportunity to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and plunged the country into chaos.
After little visible action on the issue, President Barack Obama pledged in July during his trip to Africa to hold Kiir and Machar accountable for the war.
Dr Lomuro said the consultative meeting aimed reviewing the IGAD Compromise Peace Agreement as the deadline approached. “I think we should work harder to move the two sides together”, he said.
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Earlier talks in the Ethiopian capital had sought a power-sharing agreement and a transitional government.
