South Sudan: Riek Machar Ready To Talk Peace With Kiir If His Demands Are Met

South Sudan’s former vice president and exiled leader Riek Machar says he is ready to talk peace with his rival President Salva Kiir if certain conditions on his freedom were met.

According to Eyewitness News, Machar had sent a letter to Kiir’s security adviser, seen by AFP Friday, in which he laid out a number of demands before the two of them could sit down face-to-face in Juba.

After just two years of gaining independence, South Sudan descended into war in 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup against him. The forces loyal to Machar launched a war against troops loyal to President Kiir, leading to the death of tens of thousands and the displacement of millions of others internally and externally. Machar fled into exile in 2016 after a peace deal signed the year before collapsed.

 Eventually, the two sides struck a peace deal in September and agreed to set up a unity government. The power-sharing arrangement was supposed to take effect in May this year but was delayed until November, and the process has come to a stall now.

Machar is now willing to sit down face-to-face with Kiir and discuss a way forward if certain demands were met.

“I believe this is the time to evaluate the process as two months of extended period have passed without substantial progress,” Machar wrote in the letter sent to Kiir’s security adviser.

Machar has demanded that he must be allowed to travel freely to countries under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional grouping. He resides in Sudan at present but cannot travel to the other IGAD nations – South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. He has also demanded that the terms of his house arrest must be lifted.

President Kiir’s office is yet to reply to Machar’s letter.