May 19th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardiit has reappointed the country’s former deputy minister of defense Gen. Thoi Chany as the SPLA Assistant Chief of Defense Forces for Administration, Personnel and Finance, a more junior position than the previous one where he was removed early this month.
Kiir, in a degree read on the state-ran South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, (SSBC) appointed the former deputy Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs where he succeeded David Yau Yau who was later appointed as the governor of Buma state.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
A peace agreement signed in August 2015 by President Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and negotiated under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) in presence of Troika and other international observers collapsed in July 2016 following fighting at the presidential palace in Juba “J1” reportedly after President Kiir ordered a failed attempt to arrest the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar.
Late last year, the IGAD decided to revive the peace agreement and had initiated a peace revival mechanism known as the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) to bring back to life the 2015 peace agreement. Previous rounds of the HLRF has been unsuccessful and the IGAD said it expect the warring parties to negotiate on the last round of talks which commence on Thursday.
The IGAD has given the negotiating parties May 21st as the ultimatum to sign a peace deal. But it is not clear what would be the consequences in case the warring parties do not meet the dateline.
