South Sudan’s long-awaited peace deal grants rebels key government posts
Khartoum — South Sudan’s main warring parties signed a peace deal that will grant rebels key positions in a transitional government, the latest bid to end an almost five-year conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The accord will restore rebel leader Riek Machar as President Salva Kiir’s deputy, while appointing four other vice-presidents and adding new posts for ministers and legislators. Following the collapse of a similar pact in July 2016, it will be the second attempt at a power-sharing government since the start of the civil war in the East African nation. Kiir and Machar signed the deal — which came after weeks of incremental agreements — on Sunday in Khartoum, the capital of neighbouring Sudan. Other opposition factions also took part in the ceremony.
The peace agreement is long-awaited in the nation that has faced economic chaos because of a decline in oil income and where 4-million people have fled their homes and some areas have been on the verge of f...
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