The delegation of negotiators belonging to the ruling SPLM faction headed by Salva Kiir returned from peace talks in Addis Ababa yesterday. They announced the start of a period of consultations on whether to accept a proposed power-sharing deal with the opposition or not.

Michael Makuei Lueth, spokesman of the delegation, said that the two sides made progress in the talks and stressed that the SPLM-IO agreed to cease hostilities and also agreed on other issues regarding the powers of the prime minister.

IGAD has officially adjourned the talks for 15 days to give the warring parties time for internal consultations. Meanwhile, meetings of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism and a joint security committee have continued.

Makuei said the negotiations will resume on 24 November. If the two sides again fail to agree then the issue will once again be referred back to the IGAD Heads of State summit, he said.

In remarks on Monday, the SPLM-IO chief negotiator Taban Deng said that during the high-level talks last week the two sides made progress on defining the proposed Prime Minister’s powers, but did not agree finally on the structure of government, for example the number of deputies to the prime minister.

“The structure ended with disagreement, but as to powers [of the Prime Minister and President] it ended with agreement,” said Taban Deng at a press conference in Addis Ababa.

For his part, Makuei yesterday announced his own opposition to the power-sharing proposal, saying that the proposal was ‘controversial’ and giving his opinion that the proposed Prime Minister should not be given any actual powers.

“There is no way for us to give powers to Riek Machar simply because he has caused us all these disasters. Instead of us to give him more power, he must suppose to answer. We can’t reward him for having caused us all these disasters,” he said.

However, Makuei was not in the room with Taban Deng and the other high-level negotiators during much of the talks in Addis Ababa late last week. Salva Kiir and Riek Machar met directly in the presence of Ethiopian and Kenyan leaders, and later Barnaba Marial, Nhial Deng and Salva Kiir met alone with the SPLM-IO side, according to sources at the talks. 

File photo: Barnaba Marial Benjamin