Impasse in South Sudan peace deal ends

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Warring factions in South Sudan have agreed to form a joint police force and implement demilitarization of the capital Juba city.

The agreement comes Monday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, following an impasse in the peace deal signed by South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar in August.

The “Permanent Cease-fire and Transitional Security Arrangements” are part of efforts to form a transitional government of national unity to end the 21-month long bloodshed.

South Sudanese army’s Chief of Staff General Malik Robin and South Sudan People Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) Chief of Staff Gen James Kuol signed the deal in line with an Intergovernmental Authority on Development - an eight country bloc in Africa - mediation.

Chief mediator Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin presided over the signing ceremony , which was also attended by the government’s acting chief negotiator, Michael Makuei, and the opposition's chief negotiator, General Taban Deng, representatives of the east African trading bloc IGAD and international partners.

According to the agreement, a 3,000-strong Joint Integrated Police Force - 1,500 from each warring groups - will be formed for a 30-month transitional period.

“The Presidential Guard shall be limited to 1,000, [while] the first vice president’s protection detail shall be limited to 300,” the agreement said.

Also, according to the deal, the South Sudanese capital Juba and 25 kilometers around it will be demilitarized, while 5,000 lightly-armed guards will secure barracks, bases and warehouses.

The transitional period is expected to begin early November and last for a period of two-and-a-half years during which the army, currently split into two between the warring factions, is expected to be reunified.

“Unless there is a security arrangement in place, there cannot be any functioning institution to implement the agreement; that was why we’ve been suspended up until now since August,” Mesfin told journalists after the signing ceremony.

“Now, we have finally unblocked the impasse because they [the warring factions] have agreed to put in place the institutions,” he said.

South Sudan slid into chaos after Kiir sacked his ex-vice president Machar, accusing him and scores of others of plotting a coup.

In the ensuing violence that descended into a civil war and spread quickly across the country, tens of thousands were killed and nearly two million people were displaced.

Talks between the Sudanese government and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) stalled in December. Since then African Union mediators led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki have been working to get the negotiations in Addis Ababa back on track. A cease-fire was declared last month.

The SPLM-N has been fighting government troops in the southern Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since 2011.