BBC News - South Sudan's President Kiir fit to attend peace talks

Salva Kiir became the first president of independent South Sudan in 2011

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South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has met regional leaders at a peace summit in Addis Ababa, hours after concerns emerged about his health.

A BBC correspondent said Mr Kiir, 63, looked well as he greeted other leaders and took his seat for the talks.

However, the re-emergence of a dispute between Mr Kiir and his South Sudanese rival, Riek Machar, caused substantive talks to be postponed until Saturday.

The discussions are aimed at ending the civil war in South Sudan.

The conflict, which began in 2013, has caused about 1.5 million people to be displaced.

Regional leaders are pushing Mr Kiir and rebel leader Mr Machar to agree a peace deal.

Deadlocked

Earlier, it emerged that Mr Kiir had received medical treatment after suffering from nose bleeds on Wednesday, causing the intended start of the summit to be delayed.

Mr Kiir's aides denied reports that the president had been taken to hospital on Wednesday night.

Mr Machar is also in Addis Ababa for the talks, which are being chaired by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Many people are taking refuge in UN compounds in South Sudan

Mr Kiir and Mr Machar met on Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, in talks brokered by the regional body, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).

The BBC's Emmanuel Igunza, who is at the summit, says the two sides have previously agreed to form a unity government but remain deadlocked over the powers of a new prime minister.

President Kiir sacked Mr Machar as South Sudan's deputy president in 2013 and later accused him of plotting a coup.

Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then raised a rebel force to fight government troops.

Mr Kiir has led South Sudan, the world's newest state, since its independence from Sudan in 2011.

Exiled South Sudanese call for UPDF withdrawal before talks resume - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

January 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s Nuer community in Ethiopia has called for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) from the country ahead of the resumption of a new round of peace talks between the rival SPLM factions.

A contingent of soldiers from the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (Photo courtesy New Vision)

The president of the Nuer community in Ethiopia, Koat Gatkuoth Thoat Diu, told Sudan Tribune that Uganda’s continued refusal to withdraw its forces in South Sudan would remain a major obstruction to the peace process being mediated by Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

He urged IGAD, the international community to exert more pressure on Uganda to halt its military intervention in the young East African nation.

During an official visit to Ethiopia last month, Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni said his troops would not pull out unless IGAD deploys a regional security force capable to replacing them.

Museveni argued that his decision was necessary to avoid a security vaccum.

“We didn’t go to south Sudan looking for [a] job. We deployed our troops because we have brothers there,” he said.

“We are not the problem in South Sudan and the problem is lack of peace among the South Sudanese people,” he added.

Uganda deployed its troops in South Sudan shortly after conflict erupted in December 2013 following a political dispute in the rival party (SPLM).

According to Museveni, troops are tasked with protecting civilians and public facilities from rebel attacks.

However, rebels have accused the UPDF of being actively involved in combat against opposition forces led by former vice-president Riek Machar, who is of Nuer ethnicity.

Rebel officials in Addis Ababa today told Sudan Tribune that Uganda’s continued defiance in response to repeated calls to withdraw from South Sudan will only jeopaerdise peace negotiations and further the suffering of the South Sudanese people.

Rebels also accuse the UPDF of taking part in targeted killings of ethnic Nuers alongside government forces and claim that Uganda is flouting an international ban on the use of cluster bombs.

Thousands have been killed as a result of the latest conflict in South Sudan, with about 1.9 million people also forced to flee their homes.

Ongoing peace negotiations in Ethiopia between the two warring SPLM factions have so far failed to yield a lasting political settlement to the crisis.

IGAD leaders are due to meet on 30 January to discuss the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

Machar and South Sudanese president Salva Kiir have also been invited to attend the summit, in which both are expected to face renewed pressure from regional leaders to reach peace deal.

Exiled South Sudanese call for UPDF withdrawal before talks resume - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

January 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan’s Nuer community in Ethiopia has called for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) from the country ahead of the resumption of a new round of peace talks between the rival SPLM factions.

A contingent of soldiers from the Ugandan People’s Defence Force (Photo courtesy New Vision)

The president of the Nuer community in Ethiopia, Koat Gatkuoth Thoat Diu, told Sudan Tribune that Uganda’s continued refusal to withdraw its forces in South Sudan would remain a major obstruction to the peace process being mediated by Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

He urged IGAD, the international community to exert more pressure on Uganda to halt its military intervention in the young East African nation.

During an official visit to Ethiopia last month, Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni said his troops would not pull out unless IGAD deploys a regional security force capable to replacing them.

Museveni argued that his decision was necessary to avoid a security vaccum.

“We didn’t go to south Sudan looking for [a] job. We deployed our troops because we have brothers there,” he said.

“We are not the problem in South Sudan and the problem is lack of peace among the South Sudanese people,” he added.

Uganda deployed its troops in South Sudan shortly after conflict erupted in December 2013 following a political dispute in the rival party (SPLM).

According to Museveni, troops are tasked with protecting civilians and public facilities from rebel attacks.

However, rebels have accused the UPDF of being actively involved in combat against opposition forces led by former vice-president Riek Machar, who is of Nuer ethnicity.

Rebel officials in Addis Ababa today told Sudan Tribune that Uganda’s continued defiance in response to repeated calls to withdraw from South Sudan will only jeopaerdise peace negotiations and further the suffering of the South Sudanese people.

Rebels also accuse the UPDF of taking part in targeted killings of ethnic Nuers alongside government forces and claim that Uganda is flouting an international ban on the use of cluster bombs.

Thousands have been killed as a result of the latest conflict in South Sudan, with about 1.9 million people also forced to flee their homes.

Ongoing peace negotiations in Ethiopia between the two warring SPLM factions have so far failed to yield a lasting political settlement to the crisis.

IGAD leaders are due to meet on 30 January to discuss the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.

Machar and South Sudanese president Salva Kiir have also been invited to attend the summit, in which both are expected to face renewed pressure from regional leaders to reach peace deal.

S. Sudan rebel commander vows to fight “dictatorship” - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan

 A senior South Sudanese rebel commander has vowed never to return to government, unless a system to facilitate democracy and dismantle “dictatorship” was established.

General Dau Aturjong (ST)

In an interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday, Gen. Dau Aturjong, said dictatorship had no future in South Sudan and has to be ended by decisive mass action to ensure peace and stability in the country.

“The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our movement and the people inside and outside the country can only culminate in the establishment of democracy if we work together to remove and dismantle the system which has been established,” he said.

Aturjong said the destruction caused by the country’s conflict has inflicted immeasurable pain on the people and can only be relieved if people joined the movement to work for establishment of strong institutions, not putting in place a system of strong men and women.

“The social fabric of our people has been shattered. Millions of our people are now homeless and unemployed. The economy of the country has been ruined and the national sovereignty and pride we fought to establish has been sold to the foreign countries to sustain tyranny and dictatorship,” the official told Sudan Tribune in an exclusive interview.

“Our struggle has reached decisive moment. We call on our people to seize this moment so that the process toward democracy is rapid and uninterrupted. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which the generation to come will not be able to forgive,” said Aturjong.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about 1.8 million people displaced since violence broke out in the country over a year ago due to political disputes within South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM).

Over 100,000 people currently live inside the United Nations protection of civilian camps, with many more in neighbouring Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia as the war shows no end signs.

Calls for both warring parties to cease hostilities have repeatedly been ignored, despite mediation efforts by the East African leaders.

“We call on our people to join us in the shaping of new South Sudan. The freedom of movement is a political home for all South Sudanese without distinction,” said Aturjong, an ex-army division commander.

“We call on the international community to continue the campaign to isolate the regime. Our march to freedom is a reversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way,” he added.

S. Sudan rebel commander vows to fight “dictatorship” - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan

 A senior South Sudanese rebel commander has vowed never to return to government, unless a system to facilitate democracy and dismantle “dictatorship” was established.

General Dau Aturjong (ST)

In an interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday, Gen. Dau Aturjong, said dictatorship had no future in South Sudan and has to be ended by decisive mass action to ensure peace and stability in the country.

“The mass campaign of defiance and other actions of our movement and the people inside and outside the country can only culminate in the establishment of democracy if we work together to remove and dismantle the system which has been established,” he said.

Aturjong said the destruction caused by the country’s conflict has inflicted immeasurable pain on the people and can only be relieved if people joined the movement to work for establishment of strong institutions, not putting in place a system of strong men and women.

“The social fabric of our people has been shattered. Millions of our people are now homeless and unemployed. The economy of the country has been ruined and the national sovereignty and pride we fought to establish has been sold to the foreign countries to sustain tyranny and dictatorship,” the official told Sudan Tribune in an exclusive interview.

“Our struggle has reached decisive moment. We call on our people to seize this moment so that the process toward democracy is rapid and uninterrupted. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which the generation to come will not be able to forgive,” said Aturjong.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about 1.8 million people displaced since violence broke out in the country over a year ago due to political disputes within South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM).

Over 100,000 people currently live inside the United Nations protection of civilian camps, with many more in neighbouring Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia as the war shows no end signs.

Calls for both warring parties to cease hostilities have repeatedly been ignored, despite mediation efforts by the East African leaders.

“We call on our people to join us in the shaping of new South Sudan. The freedom of movement is a political home for all South Sudanese without distinction,” said Aturjong, an ex-army division commander.

“We call on the international community to continue the campaign to isolate the regime. Our march to freedom is a reversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way,” he added.

Uganda says it will pull troops out of South Sudan only if Juba secured - Yahoo News

By Aaron Maasho

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Uganda's president said on Friday he would pull troops out of South Sudan only if regional forces secured its capital Juba from rebel attack, as fighting in the world's newest state dragged on into a second year.

Yoweri Museveni, who backed South Sudan's now-ruling SPLM in its decades-long conflict with Sudan before independence in 2011, sent his troops across the border at Juba's invitation shortly after fighting began in mid-December last year.

Since then, Uganda's military presence has been a bone of contention during drawn-out peace talks in the Ethiopian capital between President Salva Kiir and rebels led by his sacked ex-deputy Riek Machar.

Machar has demanded Uganda's urgent withdrawal.

"The problem is not with Uganda. The problem is peace among (South) Sudanese, and in order to not leave a vacuum we agreed that other IGAD countries should deploy and now they are deploying," Museveni said in a press conference, referring to east Africa's IGAD bloc, which is mediating the talks.

Museveni spoke alongside Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in Addis Ababa, where he arrived for a two-day state visit.

"I think Ethiopian forces are already there (in South Sudan), and Rwanda is there. Once they are ready, and can ensure that at least Juba is not affected ... then we shall go back. There is no big issue."

Fierce fighting erupted in the country last December, two years after Juba declared independence from Khartoum, following months of tension between Kiir and Machar.

The United Nations says the civil war has killed more than 10,000 people, caused over a million to flee and driven the country of 11 million toward famine.

Regional efforts led by neighboring Ethiopia to find a peaceful solution to the conflict have made limited gains amid bouts of fighting, despite Kiir and Machar signing a ceasefire in January and then again in May.

The warring parties re-committed to stop fighting and bring their conflict to an end without conditions in November, but sporadic bouts of fighting resumed swiftly after the latest agreement.

(Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Andrew Roche)

Opposition's consultations delay S. Sudan talks | Africa | Worldbulletin News

The opposition had to hold its consultations in Pagak, an entry point on the border with Ethiopia.

World Bulletin/News Desk

Consultations being held within the ranks of South Sudan's rebel group have caused the delay of the resumption of Addis Ababa-hosted peace talks, which were supposed to reconvene on Friday, a source with the mediating team said Sunday.

“The deadline could not be met as [rebel group] Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) could not conclude its consultations in time,” a source close to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which is mediating the peace process, told The Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

"They had logistic difficulty moving around constituencies in the three states of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity to bring together community representatives for the consultations," the source said.

"The government delegation has already concluded its consultations and is ready for the resumption of talks," he said. "I hope the opposition will conclude consultations…and the meeting will reconvene very soon."

According to the source, the opposition had to hold its consultations in Pagak, an entry point on the border with Ethiopia.

South Sudan's government and the rebel group led by former vice president Riek Machar signed a detailed timetable to implement a cessation-of-hostilities agreement and an implementation matrix during an IGAD summit held in Addis Ababa earlier this month.

During the meeting, the IGAD agreed to give the two rivals 15 days to hold consultations within respective ranks to sign a comprehensive peace agreement, and detailed the kind of sanctions that any "guilty" party would face for failure to implement the agreement.

Sanctions included asset freezes, travel bans in the region, and ban on supply of arms and munitions as well as any materials that can be used for war.

South Sudan has been shaken by violence since last December, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of leading a failed coup attempt against his regime.

Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have since been displaced in fighting between the two rivals, which has led to an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.

In recent months, the warring camps have held on-again, off-again peace talks in Addis Ababa under the auspices of IGAD, a regional bloc based in Djibouti. Yet, the talks are yet to yield a solution to the crisis.