Cairo: The South Sudanese government on Sunday signed a final peace deal and power-sharing agreement with the country's main rebel group, according to the foreign minister of neighbouring Sudan, which has helped broker the agreement.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar shake hands during peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in June.Credit: AP
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir attended the signing ceremony in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Several other African leaders also witnessed the ceremony, including the presidents of Uganda, Kenya and Djibouti.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said on Friday he believed the deal would hold because it was not forced upon the parties like previous accords.
Kiir said he sign the deal alongside his arch foe, Riek Machar, leader of the SPLM-IO rebel group, which has fought Kiir's forces intermittently since 2013.
Fuelled by personal and ethnic rivalries, the conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced an estimated quarter of South Sudan's population of 12 million and ruined an economy that heavily relies on crude oil production.
Previous peace agreements, the most recent in 2015, held for only a matter of months before fighting resumed. Kiir put this down to external influences. Both the 2015 and the 2018 agreements were mediated by Sudan and other east African nations.
"The 2015 [deal] was forced on us, we were not given the opportunity to express our desire. This is why when I came sign ... I gave my reservations," Kiir said.
"People didn’t take me seriously until the agreement collapsed in their face."
The new deal would not suffer the same fate, Kiir told reporters.
South Sudanese people hold peace signs as talks to end the five-year civil war got under way in June.Credit: AP
"This agreement [2018] will not collapse and I am sure that it will not collapse because the people of South Sudan have now agreed that they must make peace among themselves," he said.
The conflict has in part been driven by ethnic divisions – Kiir and Machar come from Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups respectively.
Some smaller opposition groups have expressed doubts over the new deal. The SPLM has said it contains several shortfalls, including a "serious lack of consistency in allocating power-sharing ratios at all levels of governance".
Kiir's side will take 20 slots in the new 35-member government, while Machar's SPLM-IO and other smaller opposition groups will take the rest.
"The agreement is in place and we will remain committed ... and will implement [it]," Kiir said.
Reuters