Off the wire
• Lebanon's Hezbollah reiterates call for political solution in Syria  • Roundup: Canadian stock market regains momentum over upbeat job data, Greece optimism  • Hungary has to build fence on border with Serbia: FM  • John Kerry does not see Russia as existential threat: U.S. State Dept  • Roundup: U.S. stocks surge as overseas worries ease  • BiH prepares for Srebrenica anniversary  • 1st LD Writethru: UN Security Council hails direct talks between Afghan govt, Taliban  • 2nd LD Writethru: UN Security Council hails announcement of humanitarian pause in fighting in Yemen  • Albanian police destroy 1,042 cannabis roots  • 1st LD: UN Security Council hails announcement of humanitarian pause in fighting in Yemen  
You are here: 　 Home

Khartoum urges S. Sudan rivals to resume peace talks

Xinhua, July 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sudan urged on Friday the South Sudanese rivals to stop warring and work to "reach a comprehensive peace and security for South Sudan's people."

"Sudan renews its call for South Sudan rivals to resume negotiations according to the roadmap presented by the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development in Africa (IGAD)," Sudan's Oil Minister Mohamed Zayed Awad said when addressing a ceremony organized by South Sudan Embassy in Khartoum on the occasion of the South's fourth Independence anniversary.

"We hope the South Sudan rivals would stop the war and work to reach a comprehensive peace and security for South Sudan's people", he noted.

He reiterated his country's concern about stability in South Sudan, saying "Sudan has been closely following the developments of the war in South Sudan."

IGAD has recently proposed a road-map for settling the conflict in the new-born country, suggesting power-sharing between the government, led by President Salva Kiir and the rebels, led by Riek Machar.

The IGAD proposal granted the current government a majority in the legislature, the positions of President and Vice President and 53 percent of ministerial portfolios.

It further proposed for the rebels a new position of First Vice President and 33 percent of ministerial portfolios, while the remaining 14 percent was allotted for the other opposition groups, excluding the Greater Upper Nile region (Jnoglei, Upper Nile and Unity States) where 53 percent were suggested to go to the rebels and 33 for the current government.

South Sudan secured its independence in 2011. However, it plunged into violent clashes in December 2013 as fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar.

The conflict soon became an all-out war, with violence taking on an ethnic flavor, pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar Nuer's ethnic faction.

The warfare has left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced around 1.9 million people to flee their homes. Endit