JUBA: South Sudan ‘s vice president has said that peace talks in neighboring Kenya have failed to admit the country’s peace deal established in 2018, alleging a new draft agreement is aimed at replacing the first peace agreement.
Riek Machar has expressed his reservations and said that the current peace talks should complement and not eradicate the original agreement.
The former rebel leader inked a deal with President Salva Kiir in 2018 that concluded a five-year civil conflict that killed around 400,000 people. Machar and Kiir were on opposite sides in the conflict and Machar was appointed as vice president following the 2018 agreement. His group is not part of the current dialogue, which are for groups that were not included in the 2018 deal.
Despite the peace agreement, violence in South Sudan has continued, most of it attributed to rebel groups and warring groups.
The forum mandated with monitoring the execution of the 2018 peace agreement raised concerns in May over the slow execution of election related assignments with only a few months left until December polls.
Opposition groups that were not part of the 2018 peace deal have been in talks in Kenya since May 9 aimed at bringing groups on board ahead of the December polls.
President Kiir has received a progress report from government representatives in the current talks with the government spokesperson telling media persons that participants in the talks are close to reaching a final deal.
