May 31st 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan president Salva Kiir Mayardiit on Wednesday discussed peace with the new Ethiopian prime minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed before returning to the country yesterday evening after a surprise trip to the east African nation amid mounting regional and international pressure over peace revitalization in the country.
Kiir used his first Ethiopian trip since the surprise resignation of the former Ethiopian leader Helemariam Desalenge in March to congratulates Desalenge’s successor Dr Abiy Ahmed who was elected as the the Ethiopian premier and the chairman of the Ethiopian coalition, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
The Ethiopian leader reiterated his country’s effort to achieve peace in South Sudan and every neighboring country that is in need of the mediation service that his country is giving for the sake of peace.
Kiir returned home on Wednesday. It is not clear why he surprisingly jetted to Ethiopia in a foreign trip that was not publicized, but sources told the Nyamilepedia on Tuesday that the South Sudan leader was invited by the IGAD mediation for direct consultation with his former deputy Riek Machar.
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.
A peace revitalization process ended without a formal agreement between warring parties last week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa after the regional mediated presented a peace proposal that seek to share power between different warring parties.
