South Sudan rivals agree to meet unity government deadline

17/1/2020 18:24

        South Sudan's rival leaders have agreed to form a coalition government by the February deadline, a South African special envoy says.
        
        South Sudan President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar in their latest talks this week also agreed that key outstanding issues under the country's 2018 peace deal would be arbitrated within 90 days of the new government’s formation, South African Deputy President David Mabuza said Thursday.
        
        The United States and others have pressured South Sudan’s rival leaders to meet the Feb. 22 deadline after they failed to meet one in November. The country's five-year civil war that erupted just two years after South Sudan won independence from Sudan killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions.