May 29th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Kenya’s special envoy for South Sudan and the leader of the Kenyan opposition coalition NASA, Raila Odinga will travel to Pretoria this week to meet South Sudan’s prominent opposition leader and the country’s former first vice president Riek Machar who is leading an armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, against the incumbent South Sudan government.
The opposition leader was appointed as the Kenyan representative to the South Sudan peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa as well as the country’s special envoy for South Sudan which has been at war since its outbreak in December 2013.
The Nyamilepedia has learned that the Kenyan politician held a meeting with President Kiir last week to discuss the Addis Ababa talks as peace talks were indefinitely adjourned by the regional mediation last week. However, the South Sudan presidency did not reveal the details of the meeting nor publicizing the visit of the Kenyan leader.
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.
1 comment
Dear Mr. Raila, every person has his/her own capacity to make thing happen though only few make things happen supernaturally. But I think your country participation through you may work well. It may be a smart move by the Kenyan president to appoint you to this portfolio. You never know the contribution you will make can change thing for the better though I know full well that this matter is complicated than that. However, Kenya attempt to mediate is always successful than of Ethiopia when we refer back to the previous evidence. So do your best in a very wise way to sustain the views of these two leaders.