South Sudan’s warring leaders agree to share power, again

Skepticism high as previous agreements have all quickly fallen apart

KHARTOUM, SUDAN — South Sudan’s warring leaders have agreed to share power once again in a transitional government in the latest effort to end a five-year civil war, officials announced Wednesday.

South Sudan’s information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, announced the agreement between President Salva Kiir and armed opposition leader Riek Machar to reporters in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

The agreement, initialed Wednesday, will be signed on Aug. 5, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed said. There was no immediate comment from the armed opposition.

Kiir will lead South Sudan’s government during the transitional period and Machar will return as first vice-president, Sudan’s official SUNA news agency reported. A similar arrangement fell apart in July 2016 when fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, and Machar fled the country on foot.

The civil war broke out in 2013 between supporters of Kiir and his then-deputy Machar. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since then, with more than 2 million fleeing the country in Africa’s largest refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Millions of others have been left near famine.

Multiple ceasefires, including a “permanent” one signed by Kiir and Machar weeks ago, have been violated within hours. Meanwhile, both sides have been accused of abuses. A UN report this month described how government troops and allied forces hung people from trees, burned others alive and raped or gangraped dozens of women and girls.

The new agreement comes as South Sudan’s leaders are under growing pressure from an impatient international community to end the fighting. Under the threat of a UN arms embargo Kiir and Machar agreed to resume talks in June, their first face-to-face discussions in nearly two years.

Earlier this month the UN Security Council imposed the arms embargo anyway.

The U.S. earlier this week said it was “skeptical” that Kiir and Machar can oversee an end to the fighting.

Machar will be among five vice-presidents in the transitional government. The warring sides also have agreed to share a 550-seat parliament.

Some South Sudanese who have seen past peace deals come and go reacted to the latest news with wariness.

“Working relations between Kiir and Machar is at its lowest level ever and chances of the duo causing another regrettable wave of violence are high,” said Wol Deng Atak, the editor of a newspaper that was forcibly shut down by the government.