Yiep Joseph
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The onus is now on President Salva Kiir to move with speed, bring the Sudanese warring factions to the dialogue table, and agree to a long ceasefire.
The head of state has in one month made steps and positioned himself as the best bet to make an end to the dragging war that threatens to spread its tentacles to other countries in the Horn of Africa.
For the better part of Wednesday, President Kiir was meeting a Sudanese delegation that is a signatory to the Juba Peace Agreement to discuss the diplomatic end to the conflict.
According to the statement obtained from the Presidential Press Unit, Kiir met with the leadership of the Forces of Freedom and Change, a FFC delegation led by Omer Eldigair, to discuss the Sudanese crisis and possible solutions to resolve the conflict.
This was just after the South Sudan government ended the two-day meeting on Juba Peace held in Juba.
As a close friend to Sudan, the Sudanese delegation appealed to President Kiir to double efforts to mediate peace in Sudan due to his vast knowledge and relationship with Sudanese leaders.
Sadiq El Mahadi, who represented the group, confidently averred that President Kiir is going to bring all the warring factions together.
According to the statement, both Kiir and the delegation discussed the outcome of the Cairo meeting between Kiir and the Egyptian government.
Early this month, President Salva Kiir visited Cairo, where he held a meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt to discuss how to stop the Sudanese conflict.
Al-Sisi said in a media report that they agreed to make direct contact with the warring parties in Sudan.
“We agreed to step up efforts and contacts between us and the relevant parties inside Sudan, in order to find urgent solutions to the crisis and spare the Sudanese people further destruction and displacement,” Al-Sisi said.
The meeting between the two neighbours of Sudan took place as US-Saudi-broke ceasefire talks are continuing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Recently, an Ethiopian diplomat joined the talks as a representative for the IGAD and the African Union alike.
It remains unclear whether the mediation will consider the demand of the two countries to join the Jeddah process, which is perceived as the only valid option even for a future political process, as the military-led government in Sudan contests any leadership role with the AU and the IGAD.
“The meeting was centred on mechanisms for ending the war based on “the outcomes of the Cairo Summit” and the steps to unify the political and civil forces in Khartoum,” PPU noted.
The meeting also discussed initiatives proposed by neighbouring countries to stop the war in Sudan.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Sudan Peace Mediation Committee, Dr. Dhieu Mathok, said President Kiir is making unremitting efforts to find a lasting political solution to the Sudanese crisis.
The Jeddah peace initiative calls on negotiators to abide by an earlier agreement announced on May 11 to protect civilians, as well as a short-term ceasefire agreement signed on May 20.
On April 15, 2023, armed clashes erupted between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in heavily populated parts of the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other cities, including in the Darfur region. The clashes follow weeks of rising tensions between the two forces over security force reform during negotiations for a new transitional government and were preceded by the SAF and RSF jointly overthrowing Sudan’s transitional government in October 2021.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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