Sudan proposes meeting between South Sudan president, opposition leader

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Sudan on Tuesday proposed an initiative to host a meeting between South Sudan President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar.

A high-level Sudanese delegation, which visited South Sudan's capital Juba on Tuesday, handed a message from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir, Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The delegation included Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, Oil and Gas Minister Azhari Abdul-Ghader Abdullah, Chief of National Intelligence and Security Service Salah Abdallah, according to the statement.

It said the message was relating to an initiative to support the efforts to realize peace between the South Sudanese rivals.

The message expressed Sudan's readiness to host a proposed meeting between Kiir and Machar.

Kiir welcomed the Sudanese initiative, reiterating his government's readiness to take part in it and make it successful to achieve security and stability in South Sudan.

Foreign ministers of the member states in the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development in Africa (IGAD) agreed in their meeting last week to hold a face-to-face meeting between Kiir and Machar.

This photo taken on December 21, 2017 shows African Union chairman Moussa Faki (2nd L-top) sitting with members of IGAD as they attend a signing ceremony for the ceasefire agreement amongst South Sudanese parties to end the four-year war in the country. /VCG Photo

The meeting tends to revive the peace process in South Sudan and urge the parties to the conflict to implement a peace deal brokered by the IGAD in August 2015.

South Sudan has been witnessing a civil war since December 2013 that left around 10,000 people dead and millions displaced.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency