S Sudan Agrees to Regional Force Deployment

Local Editor

South Sudan's government Friday agreed to allow a regional protection force to be deployed in the country, a regional development group said, following fighting between rival groups last month in the country's capital Juba.

Such a force was a key demand of former Vice President Riek Machar, the leader of one of the factions involved in last month's fighting.

The agreement was reached at a summit meeting in Ethiopia of the leaders of the eight countries in the group, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

"The government of South Sudan has accepted [the deployment of troops] with no condition," Mahboub Maalim, IGAD's executive secretary, told reporters.

Fighting broke out in July between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and to Machar, his long-time rival, who had been serving as vice president but who left Juba after the fighting.

Machar also served as vice president from 2011, when South Sudan gained independence, until he was sacked by Kiir in 2013.

After two years of fighting between his forces and Kiir's, Machar returned to Juba in April and resumed the position of vice president as part of a peace agreement.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team