S. Sudan Militants Reject New States, Government Formation Delayed

Local Editor

Warring rivals in South Sudan missed a key deadline Saturday to forge a unity government, with militants rejecting President Salva Kiir's creation of new regional states as fighting continues.

The rivals were supposed to form a government by January 22, but militants say Kiir's nearly tripling of the number of regional states in December undermines a fundamental pillar of an August power-sharing deal to end two years of civil war.

For his part, the spokesman for the militant group Mabior Garang criticized "anti-peace hardliners within the government" and said they would base negotiations on the old system of 10 states and not the current 28.

Garang however said rebels are "fully committed to peace and shall not entertain a return to war."

Civil war began in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the poverty-stricken country along ethnic lines.

Despite the August agreement, fighting continues, with the conflict now involving multiple militia forces who pay little heed to paper peace deals and are driven by local agendas or revenge attacks.

Heavy fighting was reported this week in the Western Equatoria region, including street battles in the state capital of Yambio Thursday, close to border with Democratic Republic of Congo, according to aid workers.

Relatively, United Nations rights monitors this week added more details to a long list of horrific abuses in the more than two-year war.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team