South Sudanese leaders are in conversation

juba - The South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar has accepted an invitation to talk to President Salva Kiir next week in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as a mediator on behalf of the East African joint venture, proposed to bring IGAD to the table for both rivals on 20 June. It could be the trigger for new peace talks.

A spokesman for former vice president Machar, who is living in South Africa under house arrest, said Wednesday that his political movement is happy with the invitation, but that it will take a long time to create a basis of trust for the peace process.

It is the first time that Kiir and Machar meet since the peace agreement between the government and the insurgents was blown up in August 2016. Since the outbreak of the civil war at the end of 2013, two years after the declaration of independence, tens of thousands of people, including many civilians, have been killed in southern Sudan by fighting between rival troops.

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