South Sudan rivals sign ceasefire agreement
Iran Press TV
Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:41PM GMT
Rival leaders in South Sudan's conflict have signed a ceasefire deal, pledging to put an end to the civil war, which has plagued the world’s youngest nation for more than 8 months.
A communiqué released on Monday by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which brokered the talks between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, welcomed the "signature by the warring parties."
The IGAD statement also expressed "serious concerns over the worsening humanitarian situation in South Sudan where millions face famine, and which presents a threat to the national security of the entire region."
The eight-member East African bloc also called on Kiir and Machar to forge a unity government within 45 days.
The United Nations has said the food crisis in South Sudan is the "worst in the world."
South Sudan plunged into violence in December 2013, when fighting erupted between troops loyal to Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Machar around the capital Juba.
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 Dinka tribe against Machar’s Nuer ethnic group.
The clashes left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.5 million people to flee their homes in the world’s youngest nation.
South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 after its people overwhelmingly voted in a referendum for a split from the North.
MP/AB
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