ARUSHA
Warring
South Sudanese factions gathered in Tanzania on Wednesday in the latest
peace efforts to end over a year of civil war, which has claimed the
lives of tens of thousands of people.
Rebel
chief Riek Machar is expected to meet with arch-rival President Salva
Kiir later Wednesday to ink the latest in a string of agreements,
Tanzanian government officials said.
The
two sides are expected to sign an agreement aimed at reunifying the
ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), said
Salvatory Rweyemamu, from the office of Tanzanian President Jakaya
Kikwete, who is hosting the talks.
Ugandan
President Yoweri Museveni — who has sent in troops to back Kiir's
forces — as well as Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta are also attending the talks,
being held near the northern Tanzanian tourist town of Arusha.
"We are working towards the beginning of the conclusion of armed conflict," Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said.
Fighting
broke out in South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, in December 2013
when Kiir accused his sacked deputy Machar of attempting a coup.
Kiir
and Machar last met in November in Addis Ababa, where they agreed on an
immediate halt to the war, a deal broken within hours.
PARALLEL EFFORT
The fighting in the capital Juba set off a cycle of retaliatory massacres across the country, pushing it to the brink of famine.
South
African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is also in Arusha to "bear
witness to the signing of a unity agreement between different sections
of the SPLM", his spokesman said.
The
talks in Tanzania are a parallel effort to start peace negotiations
brokered by the east African regional bloc Igad in the Ethiopian capital
Addis Ababa.
Another round of Igad talks are due on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa at the end of January.
But the war continues.
This
week, military spokesman Philip Aguer said the army and rebels had
fought heavy battles in the central Lakes state, and accused Machar's
forces of blowing up an oil well in Unity state.
"Machar's forces have been spreading destruction... burning villages, destroying oil wells," he said.
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