You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Africa Subsaharan
S. Sudan rebel leader seeks further delay to unity government
2019-10-21
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar said on Sunday that he wants to further postpone the formation of a power-sharing government, warning that rushing into the arrangement would lead to a disaster.

Machar, on a rare visit to Juba from exile in Khartoum for talks with his rival President Salva Kiir, met with a delegation from the UN Security Council which is visiting the country just three weeks before the unity government is to be formed on November 12.

The formation of the government has already been delayed once, in May, over crucial issues such as the formation of a unified army made up of rebel and government forces, and disagreements over state boundaries.

Machar warned that if the security issues were not addressed, the country would see a repeat of fighting in 2016, when an earlier peace deal collapsed, forcing him to flee the country on foot under a hail of gunfire, and worsening the conflict.

"Why do you want to repeat the same mistake?" Machar told the Security Council delegation, which is pushing for the government to go ahead, as South Sudan is currently home to the most expensive UN peacekeeping mission in the world.

Under the September 2018 peace deal, fighters from all sides are to be trained and deployed as an 83,000-strong unified army - a process that has been hampered by delays and lack of funding.

"If we don’t have a national army, police, security, how do you form the government? This morning president Kiir and I met the security chiefs and what we have found is that even in three months, we will not achieve that," Machar said.

"We have critical issues that we have to resolve, the security arrangement has to be in place. If we are not there by the 12th when Kiir insists to form the government as he had threatened, don’t blame us."

Related:
Riek Machar: 2019-10-14 South Sudan says will host peace talks between Sudan and rebels
Riek Machar: 2019-09-21 S. Sudan’s new government to be formed by November: Kiir
Riek Machar: 2018-11-03 South Sudan frees rebel chief’s associates to back peace deal
Related:
Salva Kiir: 2019-10-14 South Sudan says will host peace talks between Sudan and rebels
Salva Kiir: 2019-09-21 S. Sudan’s new government to be formed by November: Kiir
Salva Kiir: 2019-09-16 Expelled aid groups can return to Sudan: official
Posted by:Fred

#2  Then they won’t be fighting one another within South Sudan’s borders. They’ll just be fighting across shared borders.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-10-21 20:11  

#1  The only possibility for peace is to divide South Sudan in three: Bahr al=Ghazal (Dinka) East Nile (Nuer) and Equatoria (Equatorial tribes). Otherwise they will just keep on killing one another.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889   2019-10-21 09:02  

00:00