June 5th 2018 (Nyamielepedia) – South Sudan’s president Kiir and prominent opposition and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar will meet in the Muritanian capital Nouakchott in late June this year sources familiar with the IGAD initiative told the Nyamilepedia on Tuesday from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
“Yes Machar and Kiir are going to meet before June 30th and I am aware of this, and the venue will be Muritanian capital Nouakchott” one source told the Nyamilepedia from Ethiopian on Tuesday.
Another source said he is aware of the meeting between the South Sudanese and SPLM rivals but could not comfirm the venue where the meeting will take place saying the IGAD will announce the date in the near future.
“Venue is not communicated yet, but the IGAD will announce it soon,” the other source said.
IGAD decided last week to endorse the full participation of the former first vice president in the ongoing peace talks and directed the regional bloc’s mediation to summit a fully developed revitalization text for the 2015 peace agreement.
Machar has been under house arrest since October 2016 after the regional bloc reportedly asked South African authorities to detain him from leaving the country.
In collaboration with the United States, IGAD hoped to prevent Machar from taking part in the political crisis in South Sudan, however, in contrary, the war has been raging on since then.
In March 2018, the IGAD decided to “release him” but the planned release has some demands attached to it which the opposition said do not make sense.
The IGAD said Machar must first renounce violence in order to be relocated to one of the country outside the region.
For their part, the opposition said their group under Machar has already signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement with the government; something they said shows their group is not interested in violent meant of solving the current crisis.
An IGAD delegation which visited Machar in South Africa disagreed with him after approaching him to inform him that the regional bloc have decided to relocate him to Djibouti
