Steps toward civil peace in South Sudan

Two years ago the leaders of South Sudan had a disagreement, leading to one of them being dismissed from his post. One was the president and the other was the first vice president. Since then – 2013 – civil conflict took hold, fuelled by the proponents and dissenters of the political rivals. A peace agreement between the two leaders was reached in August 2015, in which the first vice president would be reinstated, and has yet to be enacted.

The president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, announced on state news on Thursday February 11, 2016, that he would re-appoint his rival as first vice president (International New York Times, February 11, 2016). The first vice president was Riek Machar, who held the position from 2011 to 2013 (and formerly as second vice president of Southern Sudan before independence, from 2005-2011 under the transitional government). I attended the inaugural session of Parliament in 2005.

Mr. Kiir is from the Dinka ethnic group and Mr. Machar is a Nuer – however, they have worked together for a substantial amount of time (from 2005) before the disagreement. Mr. Machar has yet to accept the announcement and decree, and return to Juba, the capital of South Sudan. He is currently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the peace agreement was negotiated.

The disagreement was about the restructuring of regional states. The government, in December 2013, dissolved the 10 existing states and created 28 new ones. The question of state power became an issue of contention. Mr. Machar said it undermined the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, during the transitional government, on the formation of national unity.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The SudanCurse (2009).

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