Addis Ababa. Direct talks between South Sudan’s president and the country’s rebel chief have failed to strike a peace deal, mediators said Friday, but added that discussions would continue over the weekend.
President Salva Kiir and ousted vice president
Riek Machar have held two days of meetings in Addis Ababa, with
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgen and Kenyan President Uhuru
Kenyatta leading the latest push for an end to the nearly 11-month-old
civil war.
East African leaders have grown increasingly
impatient with the warring sides, their slow-moving talks and repeated
violations of several prior ceasefire deals, and have told them to “come
to their senses”.
On Friday, however, a statement from the Kenyan
presidency said “a deal did not appear imminent” and that talks were set
to drag on into a third day on Saturday.
“My understanding is that the leaders are
determined to make progress as they see this as a pivotal stage in the
negotiations,” said Kenyatta’s spokesman Manoah Esipisu. “But it is, as
expected, a difficult process.”
According to a mediator from the east African bloc
IGAD, the two South Sudanese leaders were told that “the credibility of
IGAD is now at a low point”.
Unless a deal is reached quickly, the bloc made up of eight member states “will take action”, the mediator added.
The UN Security Council also warned this week of
possible sanctions over the fighting, which has left tens of thousands
dead and forced almost two million from their homes.
Diplomats trying to broker a peace deal appear to
be jaded by the process, and on Thursday the Ethiopian prime minister
complained that there “appears to be little appetite for peace”.
“That the patience of the international community is wearing thin is hopefully not lost on both sides,” Hailemariam said.
War broke out in December last year, when Kiir
accused his sacked deputy Machar of trying to stage a coup, with the
violence broadening into an ethnic conflict and now including more than
20 different armed groups. (AFP)