Negotiators from all invited parties were present at the opening session of South Sudan’s peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday.

In most of the previous rounds of the talks the government and armed opposition have been the only parties at the table. Both have earlier sought to exclude the SPLM-Leaders faction as a ‘stakeholder’ at the talks, while mediators have been pressuring the two sides to accept their involvement.  

The participating delegations now include: (1) Government (members of the SPLM-Juba faction); (2) armed opposition (SPLM-in-Opposition); (3) Religious leaders; (4) civil society; (5) opposition parties (Political Parties Leadership Forum, including SPLM-DC); (6) SPLM-Leaders faction, also known as ‘Former Detainees’.

During the opening session yesterday, the facilitator of the talks, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), yesterday reminded both warring parties that it was ready to take measures against them if no progress is made.

IGAD Special Envoy Seyoum Mesfin said, “Promises are not enough. We must truly deliver. The region will not tolerate any delay.”

He said the two sides much work toward formation of a national unity government, as agreed by SPLM-Juba and SPLM-IO leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar last June.

The two principals agreed on a 60-day timeline in face-to-face talks on 10 June that they would “expedite and complete dialogue on the formation of a transitional government of national unity within sixty days.”

That deadline is now just days away.

IGAD last Thursday confirmed that the key agenda of the talks are “to finalize and sign the Cessation of Hostilities Matrix and negotiations on details of the Transitional Government of National Unity.”

The talks come after an adjournment of more than a month, during which the mediators held consultations with East African leaders and briefed the UN Security Council on the reasons for lack of progress so far. 

Chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin’s latest trip was on Saturday to Khartoum, where he briefed the Sudanese President Omar al Bashir on the “the results reached so far during the past rounds of negotiations” and the plans for the upcoming round.

He was also last week in Nairobi, where he met with other regional leaders.

Photo: Members of the SPLM-Leaders (Former Detainees) group at the opening session of the new round of peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (IGAD)

Gallery: The opening of the peace talks at the UNECA conference hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (IGAD)