IGAD mulls troop deployment to South Sudan
Iran Press TV
Tue Mar 4, 2014 5:4PM GMT
East African states have reportedly prepared a plan to send troops into South Sudan to help seal a ceasefire deal between the government and rebel forces, an official says.
The Inter-governmental Agency for Development (IGAD) said in a statement Tuesday that it was discussing with the African Union and United Nations a way to send "protection and stabilisation forces" to the war-torn African country.
The group would be part of a system to monitor the ceasefire between the warring factions in South Sudan since an agreement was reached on January 23.
This is while both government and rebel forces in South Sudan continue to accuse each other of breaking the truce.
The UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) expressed deep concern over the escalating violence taking place in Sudan's South Darfur state over the past few days.
Sudan accuses South Sudan, which seceded from the Republic of Sudan in July 2011, of supporting anti-government rebels operating in the Darfur region and the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Thousands of people have been killed and nearly 900,000 others displaced by more than two months of fighting between government forces and rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.
The fighting between troops of South Sudan President Salva Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group, and his former deputy, Machar, a Nuer, erupted around the capital, Juba, on December 15, 2013.
The conflict soon turned into an all-out war between the army and defectors, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension that pitted the president's tribe against Machar's.
GMA/PR
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