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South Sudanese leaders urged to respect agreement reached in Arusha

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Africa's Heads of State including Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Wednesday urged leaders of the South Sudan's rival factions to heed to what they have agreed in the just-concluded Arusha peace talks.

They made the call in northern Tanzania's Arusha on Wednesday night soon after the Sudanese leaders inked the long-awaited agreement to end turmoil in the youngest African nation.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar signed a pact in Arusha to bring together the rival camps of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Kikwete, the chief negotiator of the civil war, urged the fighting South Sudanese leaders to implement all issues which are within the signed pact.

"This agreement is historic and if we are to respect what we signed, South Sudan will be a war-free nation and this is our expectations," Kikwete said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museven congratulated fighting parties for reaching consensus for the good future of South Sudan.

"This agreement needs to be respected for the strong unity of SPLM and the people of South Sudan," he said.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta assured Sudanese leaders that his country would provide all the support needed to boost socio- economic development of the upcoming nation.

Abdulrahman Kinana, Secretary General of Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), said the Arusha peace talks were attended by SPLM-in Government (SPLM-IG), SPLM-in Opposition (SPLM- IO) and SPLM-Former Detainees (SPLM-FD).

Among the 43 agreed issues include reviewing country's constitution, sharing power, giving SPLM members equal rights to be elected in any post of leadership and the rights to vote, bringing in democratic change in the party, good governance as well as asking forgiveness for South Sudanese people for causing turmoil and civil war.

Other leaders who witnessed the signing ceremony include Tanzania's Vice President Mohamed Gharib Bilal, South African Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit and South Sudan former Vice President Riek Machar.

Fighting broke out in the newly-independent South Sudan in December 2013 when Kiir accused his sacked deputy Machar of attempting a coup.

The escalating war split the SPLM along ethnic lines and set off a cycle of retaliatory battles and massacres across the country that have left tens of thousands dead and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The talks in Tanzania were a parallel effort to start peace negotiations brokered by the east African regional bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Another round of IGAD talks are due on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa at the end of January.

Kiir and Machar met last November in Addis Ababa where they reached an agreement to immediately halt the war, which was shattered in just a matter of hours. Endi