By RFIPosted on 06-11-2019Modified on 06-11-2019 at 20:31

There is only one week left for South Sudan's main political forces to form a national unity government, as provided for in the peace agreement signed in September 2018. President Salva is indeed on 12 November. Kiir is to host in Juba his former deputy and rival Riek Machar in the country's leadership.

Riek Machar continues to refuse to integrate the future government, demanding additional confidence-building measures. A requirement rejected by Salva Kiir. This is why Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is organizing this Thursday, with his Sudanese counterpart, a meeting in Kampala between the two men, to try to find common ground.

President Museveni will have to be pragmatic. And in the company of the President of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, General Al-Burhane, he will have to get answers from his guests, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.

On the one hand, before joining the government, Riek Machar says he wants security assurances for opposition leaders, first. But also details on the cantonment of the armed forces, as well as the return to the territorial division of before the civil war. For its part, President Salva Kiir believes that the time is no longer postponements. For him, urgency is a united government, striving to settle national issues. According to him, the ball is in Riek Machar's camp, period.

These are the contradictions that mediation will have to overcome this Thursday. This meeting is not yet the last chance, but it is true that the pressure is increasing on the South Sudanese for a solution to be found before the deadline of November 12.

Already Ethiopian, Kenyan and Sudanese diplomats had met in Djibouti last week with the special envoy of IGAD to discuss the blockage. And on Friday, an IGAD meeting is to be held in Addis Ababa to assess the six-day situation on 12 November.

    On the same subject

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