Ginaba Lino
President Salva Kiir and his first Vice President Riek Machar, on Sunday agreed on the appointment of the opposition Generals into unified command structure within this week.
The two parties also agreed on the graduation of the unified forces within two months urging for the return of the opposition into mechanisms since it is one of several deadlocked issues holding up implementation of the 2018 peace deal.
“Peace is about security and today we have (achieved) a milestone,” said Martin Abucha, who signed the agreement on behalf of Machar’s opposition SPLM/A-IO. “The guns must go down.”
Meanwhile the minister of presidential affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin hailed the deal – hammered out following mediation by neighbouring Sudan – as a “necessary step that opens a route for the stable government of the Republic of South Sudan”.
The rivals also agreed to a cessation of hostilities, a halt to “propaganda” that stokes tensions, and called for the two sides to stop trying to encourage defections from the other party, according to Machar’s spokesperson Puok Both Baluang.
Both Kiir and Machar were at the ceremony in the capital Juba for the signing of the accord, which stipulates a 60-40 distribution in favour of the president’s side of leadership posts in the army, police and national security forces.