South Sudan's rival factions sign agreement in Tanzania's Arusha

South Sudan's rival factions of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Wednesday signed an agreement in northern Tanzania's capital of Arusha.

The signing event puts the new African nation in a new history as for the past one year the SPLM rival parties have been fighting for power.

The signing ceremony was held at around 9:00 p.m. local time and witnessed by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Ugandan President Yoweri Museven, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, South African Vice-President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit and South Sudan former Vice- President Riek Machar.

The fight ended up killing tens of thousands of people, driven 1.5 million South Sudanese from their homes and left almost 5 million in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

However, the signing delayed for more than ten hours for what pundits say the rival parties came up with new demands.

Akol Paul Kordit, the head of the youth wing of the group allied to the president Kiir and a member of the discussion, told officials on Saturday that the Arusha talks had failed to progress because the armed opposition group led by Riek Machar and the group of former detainees to which Pagan Amum belongs made impossible demands at the negotiations.

Reports said that Machar's faction demanded dissolution and reconstituting the party structures including its leadership, while the former detainees wanted their leader Amum reinstated as party's secretary general.

The heads of state who witnessed the signing of the agreement called the fighting parties to seek out their differences and unify the young nation for the well-being of South Sudanese.

Fighting broke out in South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, in December 2013 when Kiir accused his sacked deputy Machar of attempting a coup. Endi