Peacebrokers Recommend South Sudan President Meets Rebel Rival

(Bloomberg) -- An East African bloc trying to broker an end to South Sudan’s four-year civil war recommended President Salva Kiir meet the main rebel leader as a step to reviving the peace process.

A meeting between Kiir and Riek Machar, his former vice president, should take place before an African Union summit in early July in Mauritania, a council of ministers with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said Thursday in a statement after a meeting in Ethiopia.

The conflict that erupted in the world’s youngest country in December 2013 has claimed tens of thousands of lives and forced about 4 million people from their homes. Machar and Kiir signed a peace agreement in 2015 that collapsed just weeks after they formed a power-sharing government the following year, with Machar eventually fleeing into exile.

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

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Karl Maier

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