Kiir, Gatwech to sign peace deal shortly

KHARTOUM – South Sudanese government and an SPLA-IO splinter group led by Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual will sign a peace agreement today Sunday, announced the Sudanese government.

A South Sudanese security delegation led by Presidential Adviser for Security Affairs Tut Gatluak and a delegation of the SPLA/IO Kitgwang faction led by General Simon Gatwech Dual resumed peace talks in Khartoum on January 11.

Sudanese military authorities in an invitation to the media said the signing ceremony of a peace agreement and the cessation of hostilities between the government of South Sudan and a dissident movement from Machar’s faction, will take place at the Higher Academy for Security and Strategic Studies in Suba suburb.

The ceremony is expected to take place in the afternoon.

The talks had been suspended after the coup d’état last October.

President Kiir had proposed to transfer the talks to Juba but the breakaway group rejected the offer.

The agreement will pave the way for the belated enforcement of the security arrangements and end tensions at the border area between the two Sudans.

Sudan is the guarantor of the September 2018 peace agreement which was negotiated in Khartoum.