Government and rebel representatives have gathered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on Monday to restart the much-delayed peace process.
CCTV Africa has in the meantime learned that a new peace process will be launched on the sidelines of the ongoing African Union summit in Johannesburg.
The talks are being hosted by regional bloc IGAD, who has been mediating the crisis in South Sudan for months now. Several rounds of talks have been held over the crisis, but they have all ended with no binding agreement on forming a unity government.
IGAD, the African Union, and the United Nations have all expressed their frustration at the lack of progress. The conflict between President Salva Kiir’s troops and forced loyal to rebel leader Riek Machar has been raging on and off for months.
Salva Kiir’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, has been quoted saying, that negotiators at the table in Addis Ababa will be greatly reduced from previous rounds of peace talks mediated by regional bloc, IGAD.
Ateny said the government and rebel sides will each be represented at the talks by “two chief negotiators plus other two from each warring party,” compared to 10 per side in earlier rounds.
He said the government expects that the new format for the talks will allow the negotiators to reach agreement more quickly.
Whatever the negotiating teams agree to will be presented to leaders from IGAD member states Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda at an extraordinary summit meeting on South Sudan, which is likely to be held on June 11 or 12.
David Dang, deputy representative of the SPLM/SPLA-IO mission office to Ethiopia and to the African Union (AU) told IGAD will set a time table for resumptions of the next round of talks based on outcomes of the consultations between the chief negotiators.
According to Dang, if an agreement is reached between both sides, the next round of talks will directly be between President Salva Kiir and armed opposition leader, Riek Machar.
Meanwhile Machar returned to Addis Ababa on Sunday from Pagak, South Sudan after thorough consultations with the rebel’s political and military officials ahead of the talks.
Despite rumors over his health conditions, rebel officials said Machar was in good health.
An IGAD-led peace negotiation, which started in January 2014 in the Ethiopian capital, is yet to bring lasting solution to the political crises in the world’ youngest nation.
The last round of peace negotiations collapsed on 6 March after the country’ two rival leaders failed to agree on almost all outstanding political and military-related issues.
