IIGAD-Plus prepares draft peace agreement for South Sudan

 

TVC NEWS, SOUTH SUDAN - Leaders of the two sides, president Salva Kiir and his former deputy turned armed opposition leader Riek Machar, are believed to fully accept the new draft proposal by the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and strike a final peace agreement during the next round of peace talks in mid-April.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has threatened the parties with sanctions which include asset freezes and a travel ban on
individuals obstructing the peace process; however that has not yet been implemented.


According to rebel sources, an IGAD consultative committee has left for Juba on Wednesday to meet Kiir ahead of peace talks, expected to resume soon in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
IGAD chairman and Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Wednesday met with Machar where the two leaders discussed the new IGAD-Plus peace initiative and the way forward to end the conflict.
An unofficial source said the next round of South Sudan peace negotiations will be brokered by IGAD along with African Union, UN, EU, Troika and China.
The peace talks are expected to resume between 10 and 18 April, a rebel official in Addis Ababa told Sudan Tribune .
The last round of peace talks collapsed on 6 March when the two principal leaders could not agree on almost every outstanding issue.
IGAD, which had been brokering the peace process between the two rivals since January 2014, has so far been unsuccessful in brokering a deal to end the ongoing conflict in which tens of thousands have died and millions displaced.