The Chinese government has donated $550,000 and office equipment worth $150,000 to a ceasefire monitoring body of South Sudan’s newly-formed unity government.
Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang over the weekend said that the donations would boost the commitments made by President Salva Kiir and first vice president Riek Machar in implementing the peace deal aimed at ending the more than two years of conflict in the world’s youngest nation.
“I congratulate both the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO) for this important progress,” Ma said.
Qiang added that the grants were demonstrations of the commitment of the Chinese government to supporting the peace process in South Sudan.
Machar, who had been leading his SPLM-IO rebels to fight the government, on Tuesday returned to Juba and was sworn in as the world’s youngest country’s vice president, which is part of the peace deal signed last August by the two sides under UN pressure.
The donations would go to the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM), a body set up under the peace deal to monitor ceasefire violations.
