(2 minutes read)
· Riek Machar was sworn in as First Vice President of South
Sudan, a day after President Salva Kiir dissolved the previous
government of South Sudan
· The peace deal was brokered between the two warring group by
a catholic charity organization at a meeting held at Vatican, Rome in
mid January 2020
Riek Machar was sworn in as First Vice President of South Sudan, a day
after President Salva Kiir dissolved the previous government of South
Sudan. Celebrating this occasion, President Kir said that it signified
the end of the war and beginning of a new dawn and assured that all
involved parties would work collectively to end the long sufferings of
the people and economic backwardness of the country
For those who are uninitiated in the South Sudan acrimonious politics,
the world’s youngest nation slid into a fierce civil war in 2013,
after two years winning long-fought independence from Sudan. The two
people, who led the liberation war- Kiir and Machar -clashed later,
which killed nearly 400,000 people and an equal number of others were
left with deprivation and poverty. Several attempts were made to
broker peace among the warring groups, which were in vain. Twice
there were semblance of a truce, but they fell through due to one
reason or the other.
The peace deal was brokered between the two warring group by a
catholic charity organization at a meeting held at Vatican, Rome in
mid January 2020. The meeting was attended by President Kiir’s
special envoy and former Foreign Minister Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin,
who signed the declaration on behalf of the government while Gen
Thomas Cirilo, Paul Malong and Pagan Amum amongst other members on
behalf South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance (SSOMA), while Henry
Odwar of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition
(SPLM-IO), led by former Vice President Riek Machar, signed as a
witness.
As to what will happen to this peace deal after considerable
consultations with the stakeholders, one has to wait and see. Experts
feel that since the warring groups mostly belonging to the Catholic
church and the peace deal was brokered by a charitable organization in
the Vatican, there is a possibility of the deal being accepted by both
the groups.
