Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa and chief mediator of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) for Sudan, has briefed South Sudan President Salva Kiir on the peace process in Sudan.

Mbeki, who arrived in the capital Juba on Wednesday, said:” the government and President Salva Kiir are very interested in peace in Sudan, so it was very important for us to brief the president about the work we are doing with regard to the peace question in Sudan.”

He pointed to the importance of two viable countries living side by side in harmony with each other.

Mbeki also said his meeting with President Kiir focused on the revitalized peace agreement. “This question of peace in South Sudan is important to all of us, not only to the people of South Sudan, but all of us as Africans,” he said.

For his part, South Sudan’s deputy foreign minister Deng Dau Deng said President Kiir and Mbeki discussed issues pertaining to peace negotiations between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

“The government of South Sudan will give the necessary support for the peace process between the SPLM-N and the government of Sudan,” Deng said.

Last month, President Kiir offered to mediate peace talks between Khartoum and rebels in the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and Darfur conflict zones.

The SPLM-N group, which had been part of the SPLM led by Salva Kiir, rebelled against the Khartoum government in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states in 2011.

Several rounds of negotiations between Sudan’s government and the rebels have ended without a peace agreement.