Kiir, Machar to arrive in Khartoum on Sunday morning  – Tutkew

KHARTOUM – South Sudan President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and his first deputy, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, will both arrive in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Sunday morning to attend the Sudanese peace celebration, presidential security advisor Tutkew Gatluak said.

The latest update came a day after a senior opposition official close to Machar said the main armed opposition leader is traveling to Khartoum in the next few days, without stating the purpose of his trip.

On Friday, vice-president Hussein Abdelbaggi and Gatluak arrived with a huge delegation to Khartoum ahead of the Sunday peace function.

Speaking to reporters at Khartoum airport following his arrival from Juba, Gatluak who is also the chief negotiator for the Sudanese peace deal, said Kiir and Machar would arrive in the Sudanese capital on Sunday morning, the day the peace celebration is expected to take place.

“We have come with vice-president Hussein Abdelbaggi to join our brothers in the state of Sudan in celebrating their peace because this is a historic moment for the people of Sudan and also the people of the state of South Sudan,” Gatluak said.

“The day after tomorrow, 1st Lt. General Salva Kiir Mayardit, the President of the state of South Sudan will arrive together with his brother Dr. Riek [Machar] to also join the Sudanese people in the celebration,” Gatluak added.

Under the auspices of South Sudan government, Sudanese parties signed a landmark peace agreement in October in Juba, in a ceremony that was attended by several regional heads of states and international representatives.

The peace agreement ends almost two decades of war that has seen hundreds of thousands of people killed in the country’s restive region of Darfur, Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains.

The agreement signed by the rebel Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the ruling coalition government in Khartoum establishes a self-rule for Southern Kordofan and the western region of Darfur.