Peace agreement signed in South Sudan

The warring parties in South Sudan signed a peace agreement on Sunday.

Several peacekeeping agreements have been reported and trustees have been signed in recent months, but the Sunday peace agreement is the first to be approved by all political parties in the country.

South Sudan has only existed as a country since 2011 when it broke away from Sudan. The armed conflict started two years later, due to a conflict between President Salva Kiir and his then vice president Riek Machar. They belong to different tribes. The peace talks between the warring parties were difficult for a long time.

The country is poor and the number of inhabitants is estimated at around 12 million. A quarter of them have been displaced by the violence of war.