Oct 22, 2014(Nyamilepedia) — A small summit attended by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, and the new Prime Minister of Uganda, Ruhakana Rugunda, while Yoweri Museveni is in London, has ended with a “breakthrough” this afternoon in Juba, South Sudan.
“At the Juba consultations, a breakthrough has been achieved on the outstanding issues, to be finalized at the next IGAD summit to be convened next week” read the IGAD communique on the Mini-Summit.
Although neither the communique nor the heads of states and governments, who attended the summit, elaborate on what the breakthroughs are, the IGAD leaders congratulated the South Sudan’s leaders for courageous and visionary steps in their recent meetings to resolve the 10-month civil war in their country.
“The IGAD heads of states and governments attending the Mini-Summit congratulated President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar for the courageous and visionary leadership in resolving the ongoing crisis in South Sudan” reads part of the IGAD communique extended to Nyamilepedia.
According to IGAD’s communique, the session was held to consult on the outcomes of the Bahir Dar session of the South Sudan Peace process.
The communique states that the “Bahir Dar session identified a few key outstanding issues to be discussed at the Head of state and government level before the mini-consultations have been held with Dr. Riek Machar, the leader of the SPLM-IO, to understand the key concerns of the opposition in relation to the outcomes of the Bahir Dar session”.
According to the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, the IGAD mini-summit comes in the wake of significant progress in negotiations in Addis Ababa and Tanzania.
The fifth phase of IGAD led mediation in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, made several changes towards achieving peace to the controversial IGAD Protocol of August 25th that gave President Salva Kiir an upper hand in power sharing.
Before the talks stalled on the power sharing the South Sudan’s stakeholders registered high hopes that a comprehensive agreement could be reached if the warring factions continued to compromise.
Other significant progresses have been made during the consultations with the regional leaders as well as among the SPLM leaders in Arusha, Tanzanaia.
The stalled IGAD peace mediation is expected to resumed on Monday, 27th October, 2014 in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
