South Sudanese Rebels Call for 6-Month Delay to Start Peace Deal

(Bloomberg) -- South Sudanese rebel leader, Riek Machar, proposed that implementation of a transitional government in which he will serve be delayed to allow for all pre-conditions to be met.

The transitional arrangement, part of a peace deal meant to end five years of civil war, partly by expanding the government to include the opposition, should enter into force six months after the original starting date in May, Machar’s group said in a statement. Machar would return as vice president, a position he held previously.

The extension, according to the group, would allow admitting opposition forces into the army, agreeing on regional boundaries, putting in place a security detail that all sides are confident in, providing financial resources for the process and releasing prisoners of war, according to the statement. The transitional authority can be in place for 30 rather than 36 months as earlier proposed, the group said.

The formation of the transitional government was agreed in September, the last in a series of deals since 2013 when fighting started that cost the lives of 400,000 people and displaced four million others. Crude oil production, halved by the war, started recovering after the peace deal was announced.

Delaying implementation of the new peace deal would cause uncertainty about its viability, President Salva Kiir told reporters Saturday in the capital, Juba. “We should not be bogged down by trying to tick every box before we move forward,” Kiir said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Okech Francis in Juba at fokech@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, David Malingha, Rachel Graham

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