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S. Sudan president appoints 50 rebels to parliament

Xinhua, January 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Friday appointed 50 persons named by a major rebel group as members of the parliament, according to an official radio.

The report said Kiir declared his agreement to share ministerial portfolios with the rebels as stipulated in the peace deal signed by the government and rebels.

Late on Thursday, Festus Mogae, former Botswana president and head of Joint Monitoring and evaluation Commission (JMEC) of the Inter-Government Authority for Development in Africa (IGAD), announced that South Sudan government and the rebel group, led by former vice-president Riek Machar, have agreed on a transitional government and cabinet make-up during joint talks in Juba.

He said the two sides agreed on a transitional government, to be set up on Jan. 22, consisting of 30 ministries, with 16 ministries going to the government, 10 to the rebels, two to the political detainees' group and two to other political parties.

In August 2015, the South Sudanese rivals signed a peace deal under the patronage of the IGAD to end the violence in the new-born country.

The signed deal grants the current government a legislation majority, the presidency and 53 percent of the ministerial portfolios.

It gives the rebels the position of first vice president and 33 percent of ministerial portfolios, while the remaining 14 percent was allotted for other opposition groups, excluding the Greater Upper Nile region (Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity States) where 53 percent were proposed to go to the rebels and 33 for the current government.

South Sudan nosedived into violence in December 2013, with fighting erupting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit and defectors led by his former deputy Machar.

The conflict soon turned into a full-fledged war, as violence espoused an ethnic element pitting the president's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The clashes have left thousands of South Sudanese dead and forced 1.9 million individuals to flee their homes. Enditem