S. Sudan rebel leader accused at US summit
President Salva Kiir (L) and Riek Machar (2ndR) during the signing of Cessation of Hostilities in May. File photo
What you need to know:
Mr John Kerry says the international community will be impatient with the breach of peace deal agreements.
Kampala- The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), mediating warring parties in the South Sudan conflict, has blamed the failed cessation of hostilities and continuous spiraling violence on rebel leader Riek Machar.
Igad chairman Hailemariam Desalegn, at a meeting between the regional bloc leaders and US secretary of state John Kerry in Washington said: “The violation of the ceasefire has taken place by [Dr] Riek Machar.”
“…The region has come a long way in sorting out this problem, and to solve it we will stand together,” Mr Desalegn, also the Ethiopian premier, was quoted in a communiqué issued yesterday by the US State Department.
South Sudan president Salva Kiir at separate meeting with Mr Kerry also accused his nemesis of losing control over his commanders, each operating in different regions, who are unleashing the unbridled terror on the masses.
Mr Kerry warned the rebel leader that the international community is going to be impatient with the breach of agreements. The first peace deal on cessation of hostilities was reached in May and another in June, but fighting continues in some parts of the country.
