South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
Kenya’s President William Ruto on Tuesday expressed confidence in successfully mediating the upcoming peace talks between the South Sudan government and hold -out opposition groups set to be held in Nairobi.
Ruto received on Monday a report on the peace process from the chief mediator Lt Gen (Rtd) Lazarus Sumbeiywo.
“Kenya is impressed by the South Sudan peace process, recognizing the importance of stability in the neighboring state and the region,” Ruto posted on his X, formerly known as twitter.
He said the peace talks between the transitional government and some holdout groups will begin later this week.
In December 2023, President Salva Kiir Mayardit requested Kenya’s President William Ruto to take over the mediation role from the Catholic community of Sant Egidio in Rome, saying that the talks had taken long to arrive at a resolution.
A series of pre-talk consultations have been going on in the Kenyan capital to bring the government and some holdout groups to the negotiation table.
In March, Ruto named Sumbeiywo the chief mediator between hold-out groups and the government.
The warring groups include holdout opposition groups organized under the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, religious groups and civil society.
Sumbeiywo was Kenya’s Special Envoy on Sudan between 1997 and 1998 before former President Daniel Moi later assigned him the role of mediating between the government in Khartoum, under Omar al-Bashir, and the late John Garang’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
The mediation led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 which gave Southern Sudan autonomy and later led to a referendum for independence in 2011, which created South Sudan.
