Speaking at the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where leaders are gathered for the African Union Summit, head of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus Mogae, urged members of the eight-nation IGAD authority to work together to ensure peace in South Sudan.
South Sudan has been dogged by war since December 2013, sparked by a political feud between President Salva Kiir and his then deputy Riek Machar.
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than six million, about half the country’s population.
The United Nations in early 2017 ranked the country as Africa’s biggest refugee crisis, coming third worldwide after Syria and Afghanistan.
A peace deal signed by the warring South Sudan factions in 2015 was continuously violated, rendering it ineffective.
The factions penned an agreement again in December to end hostilities, but soon after accused each other of violations.
Last week, Mogae called for “consequences” for those who refuse to turn away from the battlefield.
“We cannot stand by as South Sudanese leaders sign an agreement one day and authorize or allow its violation with impunity the next,” Mogae told the Security Council by video-conference from Juba.
On Saturday, IGAD chairperson Hailemariam Desalegn through a statement released by the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the body, alongside the UN and AU, had agreed on possible measures against parties that violate the agreement.
The South Sudan situation is expected to take center stage in the Addis Ababa talks, where tens of African heads of State are gathered to seek solutions to the South Sudan crisis.
