Kiir, Museveni hold talks on peace deal

Kampala. Embattled South Sudan President Salva Kiir at the weekend rushed to Kampala for talks with President Museveni amid mounting political tension back home.

President Kiir held two back-to- back closed-door meetings at State House Entebbe with his counterpart and select government ministers, according to senior Presidential press secretary, Don Wanyama.

Mr Wanyama described the meetings as part of an ongoing effort to thrash out a peace deal in the world’s youngest nation.

“They focused on how to bring stability to the restive country in light of recent decisions by the African Union and Inter-governmental Authority on Development,” Mr Wanyama said.

Violence erupted in South Sudan again on July 8, following friction between forces loyal to President Kiir and his deputy Dr Riek Machar.

According to United Nations, the crisis has displaced more than 36,000 people internally, claimed lives of more than 300 forcing out about 100,000 to neighbouring countries.

Uganda, Kenya, US and Germany have evacuated their citizens.

When violence erupted, Machar retreated to where his loyal forces were and on Thursday last week, President Kiir gave him a 48-hour ultimatum to return to the capital Juba or be fired.Dr Machar did not respect the ultimatum which expired on Saturday.

South Sudan media reported that a section of opposition members had resolved to replace him as vice president with Mr Taban Deng, a proposal that caused fault-lines within the opposition. Mr Deng was the opposition chief negotiator during the deal brokered in Addis Ababa that ended previous fighting that broke out on December 15, 2013.

African Heads of State meeting in the Rwandan capital Kigali for the 27th AU Summit last week approved deployment of a regional force, under the auspices of the AU, comprising troops from Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia to contain the situation. South Sudan officials present reportedly opposed the idea. The South Sudan government said it was not ready for foreign troops. Already in South Sudan are troops under the auspices of the UN Mission in South Sudan approved by the Security Council and 47 US troops dispatched by President Obama to evacuate American citizens and protect its embassy in Juba.

At the sidelines of the AU summit, President Museveni met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and suggested a regional force to provide protection to Dr Machar who is distrustful of the government forces (SPLA). (NMG)