South Sudan Peace Deal Grows Complicated as President Salva Kiir Fails to Sign Agreement

Event Summary

• South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday 17th August 2015 failed to append his signature on a peace deal to end the ongoing civil crisis in the country.
• Kiir requested for 15 more days to consult with his political and military officials back in the capital, Juba.
• The former vice-president, Machar signed the deal.
• Kiir witnessed the signing ceremony and initialed his signature on the agreement as a witness.

Analysis and Forecast

The progress of the South Sudan peace deal has become complicated with one party in the conflict showing commitment to it as the other end showed reluctance in signing to its terms.

The next move to end the 20 month civil crisis now lies in the hands of Salva Kiir who has requested for 15 more days to consult with his political and military officials who were not present in Addis Ababa.

Intelligence sources foresee a situation in which whether or not forces behind President Kiir agree to the terms of the peace deal, it will not be possible to convince South Sudan opposition to back their steps and agree to the government’s terms.

Also lying in a loose balance is how to affect the sanctions earlier prescribed for South Sudan conflicting parties on failure to reach an amicable solution to end the crisis in the country whose deadline expired on 17th August 2015. Interestingly, the opposition have signed IGAD’s version of the peace deal while the government did not.