ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc that has been mediating between the South Sudanese government and rebel forces, is currently holding a series of closed-door meetings with South Sudanese stakeholders in Addis Ababa.
“The meetings – which have been held since late Monday in secret – are aimed at finding a framework for the launch of ‘IGAD-plus’, which is a revitalized peace process,” a source privy to the meetings told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
The meetings are being attended by delegations from the South Sudanese government; the SPLM/A-in-opposition (an SPLM/A faction led by rebel leader Riek Machar); and 11 political personalities who had earlier been detained by South Sudanese authorities, including former SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum and politician Deng Alore.
The “IGAD-plus” initiative was first unveiled publicly by IGAD’s current chairman, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The initiative calls for bringing five more African countries – one from each of the continent’s five regions –into the mediation process.
Within this context, IGAD is expected to resume South Sudanese peace talks on the sidelines of an African Union heads-of-state and government summit that is currently underway in Johannesburg.
“IGAD-plus” will involve Rwanda, Algeria, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and South Africa, along with the AU, the UN, China and the so-called Troika (Norway, the U.K. and the U.S.),” the source said. “If and when it is launched in South Africa, the IGAD-plus will have married the IGAD peace process with the Arusha Agreement, a reconciliation agreement between the three SPLM factions.”
In preparation for resumed peace talks, IGAD officials are meeting separately with representatives of the three parties.
IGAD-mediated peace talks were last held in Addis Ababa in March. These quickly ground to a halt, however, even though they were attended by both Kiir and Machar.
The new initiative appears to be a last-ditch effort to find a peaceful solution to the nascent country’s civil war, which is now in its second year.
Since the conflict first broke out in late 2013, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes.
A recent World Food Program report warned that a whopping 40 percent of South Sudan’s population were currently at risk of going hungry.
IGAD’s monitoring and verification mechanism, meanwhile, established in the wake of a January 2014 cessation-of-hostilities agreement, has reported ongoing fighting throughout the country, blaming both sides for violating the ceasefire.
South Sudan has been shaken by violence since December of 2013, when Kiir accused Machar, his sacked vice president, of trying to overthrow him.
The situation on the ground in South Sudan, meanwhile, has continued to deteriorate.
Last week, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that over 100,000 people had been displaced within the last two months alone due to heavy fighting in South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states.
According to the UNHCR, ongoing violence is also preventing humanitarian aid deliveries from reaching some 650,000 people in need, as aid organizations are forced to withdraw from conflict zones.
