The government and rebels in South Sudan have agreed to end fighting and form a transitional government within 60 days, Ethiopia says.<\/p>\n
The regional IGAD bloc, mediating the conflict, has threatened sanctions if they fail to abide by the agreement.<\/p>\n
It follows a rare meeting between President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.<\/p>\n
Previous deals to end the violence have been broken by both sides, compounding the worsening humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
Thousands have now died in the conflict that started as a political dispute between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar, his sacked deputy, but escalated into ethnic violence.<\/p>\n
More than a million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted last December.<\/p>\n
Sanctions threat<\/p>\n
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced the new agreement on Tuesday, after President Kiir and Mr Machar met on the sidelines of an IGAD summit on Tuesday,<\/p>\n
“If they don’t abide to this agreement, IGAD as an organisation will act to implement peace in South Sudan. On that, we have different options including sanctions and [other] punitive actions as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There has been a growing tendency to continue with the war,” he added, criticising both sides for breaking a previous ceasefire agreed on 9 May.<\/p>\n
It is the first time South Sudan’s neighbours have issued such a warning, reflecting a growing frustrating with the South Sudanese leaders, correspondents say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Credit: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The government and rebels in South Sudan have agreed to end fighting and form a transitional government within 60 days, Ethiopia says. The regional IGAD bloc, mediating the conflict, has threatened sanctions if they fail to abide by the agreement. It follows a rare meeting between President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":23954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[38,14],"yoast_head":"\n