South Sudan president to sign peace deal, spokesman says

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has agreed to sign a peace deal to end a brutal 20-month civil war, his spokesman said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Agence France-Presse that the presidents of Kenya, Uganda and Sudan and Ethiopia's prime minister "will converge on Juba tomorrow morning for a one-day summit, and the president of the Republic of South Sudan will sign the peace agreement."

Ateny said, however, that the government was still unhappy with the accord, drawn up by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a bloc of eight African countries.

"The government has some reservations ... even if the president will sign," he said.

South Sudan's rebel leader, Riek Machar, a former vice president, signed the deal last week. Both sides in the conflict have been faced international sanctions if they refused to sign.

But Kiir only initialed part of the text, and his government slammed the accord as a sellout — saying it needed more time for consultations.

Key issues of disagreement include details of a power-sharing proposal between the government and the rebels, which could see Machar return as vice president.

Ateny said the government was unhappy over calls to demilitarize the capital, Juba, hand over greater powers to the rebels in the oil-rich Upper Nile region and see foreigners in charge of a Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, which would police the implementation of the peace deal.

Sources in IGAD confirmed plans for the deal to be signed in Juba on Wednesday, with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin due to attend. An IGAD official said Machar would not be there because security provisions were not yet in place.

South Sudan's civil war erupted in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that has split the country along ethnic lines.

Marked by widespread atrocities on both sides, the war has been characterized by ethnic massacres and rape.

At least seven cease-fires have been agreed to and then shattered within days — if not hours — in South Sudan, the world's newest country, which broke away from Sudan in 2011.

The peace proposal has been put forward by IGAD, the United Nations, the African Union, China, Britain, Norway and the United States.

The 72-page accord commits both sides to implementing a "permanent cease-fire" within 72 hours after signing. 

Military forces also have 30 days to gather for "separation, assembly and cantonment" — or confinement to barracks, with their weapons secured in storage — with a security review before an eventual reunification of forces.

All foreign forces in the war, including Ugandan troops backing Kiir, must leave within 45 days, while foreign militia forces, including rebels from neighboring Sudan's Darfur and Nuba mountain regions, must also be disarmed and sent home.

No troops are allowed within 15 miles of Juba, with only presidential guards, police and guard forces protecting infrastructure allowed in the city.

The deal gives rebels the post of first vice president, alongside the current vice president. That means Machar would likely return to the post he was sacked from in July 2013.

Signatories take responsibility for the war, "apologizing unconditionally" for the tens of thousands of people killed.

A Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing will be set up to investigate "all aspects of human rights violations," with a hybrid court — set up in collaboration with the African Union — to try crimes, possibly including genocide and crimes against humanity.

Agence France-Presse