South Sudan rival leaders have now signed what the government says is a final power-sharing agreement.
The deal is to help bring an end to the civil war that has lasted for five years.
A ceremony to sign the deal was held on Wednesday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar agreed to the deal last month after several months of negotiations.
Government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny says the deal was a “final final” deal, according to the Associated Press news agency.
New deal
The new deal is to provide for five vice presidents for South Sudan and protect a power sharing arrangement.
Per the deal former Vice-President Riek Machar is expected to return to his former position. The transitional government would govern for three years.
The most recent deal was signed in 2015 but it did not help to end the conflict.
During an earlier signing ceremony of the deal, President Kiir said he calls “on everyone as a leader of South Sudan that this agreement which we have signed today…. be the end of the war and the conflict in our country.”
Rebel leader Riek Machar then also remarked saying “we celebrate, not just in South Sudan, but throughout the world.”
“there is no option but peace … we have to focus after this stage on implementing the agreement that if we don’t implement, we will all be failures.”
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 from north Sudan but fighting broke out two years later.
Source: Africafeeds.com
