News / Sudan

South Sudan govt. moves to share power with rebels

Friday, 08 January 2016 11:36 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 08 January 2016 11:36 AM ]

A file photo taken on Sept. 15, 2015 shows President of South Sudan Salva Kiir addressing the nation Juba. (By AFP)

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has taken several steps toward implementing a stalled peace accord and sharing power with the rebel forces in the country.

In a decree broadcast on state radio, President Kiir announced the appointment of 50 individuals to a would-be transitional parliament under the August 2015 peace accord.

The new parliament members have been named by the opposition faction led by former Vice President Riek Machar.

Under the deal, the MPs who had in 2013 been sacked because of siding with the rebels in the then fresh civil war in the country will be reinstated.

Kiir also agreed to share ministerial posts with the rebel forces.

According to the panel which oversees the implementation of a peace deal, President Kiir’s faction would be given 16 ministerial posts, including those of defense, national security, finance and justice.

Rebels loyal to Machar will get 10 posts, including those of the minister of oil and humanitarian affairs.

Under the accord, Machar is to return to the capital, Juba, to assume responsibility as vice-president, a post from which he was sacked in 2013.

However, no timeline has been given for when the rebel leader or his ministers would take up their posts. Machar has yet to travel to the capital to take his position.

South Sudanese lawmakers attend a parliament session in the capital city of Juba, November 18, 2015. (File photo)

The developments come months after the warring sides in South Sudan clinched an accord to end the civil war that has killed thousands of people and displaced more than two-million others in the country.

Machar signed the agreement on August 17, 2015 while the South Sudanese president signed the peace deal about ten days later, on August 26 last year.

The power-sharing deal, which was brokered by the East African regional bloc IGAD, aimed to end the civil war in the world’s youngest nation.

South Sudan plunged into chaos in December 2013, when fighting erupted outside the capital, Juba, between troops loyal to Kiir and defectors led by Machar.

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