Inside South Sudan's Peace Talks

After five years of violent conflict, South Sudan’s main warring leaders, President Salva Kiir and his chief rival Riek Machar, signed a peace deal in September 2018. The agreement established a ceasefire and set out a political roadmap toward elections in 2022, which included the formation of a unity government. But the peace deal is imperilled, and with it the fragile ceasefire. 

Emmily Koiti, a civil society activist who participated in the peace talks, joins Alan this week to discuss why she thinks the main parties will fail to form a functioning unity government, what the principle issues obstructing progress are and why the country’s current leaders do not represent the aspirations of the South Sudanese. She also described what it was like to be present at the negotiations, shedding light on how Sudan’s forceful mediation methods under Omar al-Bashir’s leadership achieved a peace deal but failed to push the warring parties together.

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For more information, see our briefing: Déjà Vu: Preventing Another Collapse in South Sudan.