Südsudan

South Sudan's warring parties will need more than a six-month extension approved last week before they can form a transitional government, says the country's president, Salva Kiir. In his first public remarks since the parties agreed to the extension last week, the president also accused rebel leader Riek Machar's SPLM-IO (Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition) of recruiting new fighters.

South Sudan has signed a contract with a U.S. lobbying firm, after cancelling an earlier deal with the same company that drew criticism from rights groups over its aims, documents showed.

South Sudan's warring parties will hold talks in Addis Ababa on Thursday, in a bid to salvage a stalled peace deal, with just days to go until a unity government is meant to be formed.

A new U.N. report says South Sudanese security agents likely executed two prominent critics of the government who vanished in Kenya in January 2017. South Sudan's government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the disappearance of human rights lawyer Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri, a member of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM-IO).

Critics are voicing opposition to an effort by South Sudan to block the establishment of a special court aimed at investigating and prosecuting war crimes in that country. It was announced recently that the government had hired U.S.-based lobbyists to stop the creation of the so-called African Union-South Sudanese hybrid court.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir called on the leader of the main opposition group, SPLM-IO that signed the revitalized peace agreement to return to Juba as soon as possible warning that he would not delay the formation of the transitional government.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his First Vice President-designate Riek Machar have launched a two-day retreat in the Vatican to discuss the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement and ways to overcome the different hindrances.

South Sudan's president and opposition leader are expected to travel to the Vatican next week for what the Holy See says is a "spiritual retreat" and opposition officials say is an effort to help implement the country's peace deal.

The U.N. Security Council renewed a peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for an additional year; while Russia abstained from the vote accusing implicitly the U.S. of not backing the revitalized peace agreement and overburdening the draft resolution with language on human rights issues.

The truce in South Sudan is holding but could break down at any time. To stave off renewed civil war, external actors should urge the belligerents to strike new bargains on security and internal boundaries – and accept a third-party protection force for the capital.