South Sudan peace talks resume

The peace talks resumed after the last meeting between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar ended in March without a breakthrough. The two sides are now under international pressure to reach a peace deal or face sanctions.

In July, during his visit to Kenya and Ethiopia, US President Barack Obama warned the two sides that they would face sanctions, should they not reach an agreement by August 17 to end 19 months of civil war.

The two sides are meeting under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD. Several previous rounds of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, failed to break the deadlock, with both sides violating repeated ceasefire deals.

IGAD proposed a compromise agreement that outlines what the government in Juba should do in terms of power sharing, security and social reforms and in establishing a transitional government.

However, concerns have already been raised about this proposed agreement.

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has written a letter of complaint to IGAD, saying that it was trying to intimidate the two parties.

In the letter Kiir expressed his discomfort at the idea of the August deadline for a peace agreement, saying that peace cannot be signed under duress.

Juba has further requested that the United Nations and other concerned parties should let the government and the rebels negotiate on their own, without outside interference.

Experts say that the IGAD compromise agreement has loopholes that may complicate negotiations in the next few days. Some of the proposals include suggestions that three oil states should be placed under the control of the rebels, and power be shared in a way that the two new vice presidents would have veto power over the president.

Other proposals include the idea that the government and the rebels should remain in control of their armies until the integration period is over.

Negotiators speak out

The head of the government, Nhial Ndeng Nhial, thinks the threat of sanctions is not ideal for a peace agreement to be reached.

"What South Sudan really requires from IGAD and the International community is not the imposition of deadlines for the conclusion of a peace agreement but rather a set of effective measures to compel the SPLM/A in opposition to adhere to the cessation of hostilities agreement of January 23rd, 2014," he said.

"Because once this takes hold, it will be just a matter of time before the political process takes care of itself, steering the country towards resolution of the crisis without the need for deadlines, ultimatums, intimidations and threats."

The rebel faction, on the other hand, is more concerned about the legitimacy of the government in Juba in this round of negotiations. Taban Ndeng, the chief negotiator for the rebels, said that President Salva Kiir's government should have no say in the matter anymore.

"I'm negotiating with a government that has lost its legitimacy as of July 8th, 2015, hence it cannot continue to claim legitimacy to deserve that special advantage in power sharing," Taban Ndeng said.

Recently the government in Juba shut down two newspapers for being critical of its policies. One of the papers, The Citizen, was apparently shut down for an article on the pending peace agreement.

Its editor Nhial Bol Aken told DW that " the government does not want an independent opinion on the current peace talks between the government and the rebels."

Germany is one of the countries that supports the peace agreement and hopes that it will end the suffering of the South Sudanese people.

The crisis in the young country, which became independent in July 2011, erupted in December 2013 after President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting to overthrow him. This reopened ethnic fault lines between Kiir's Dinka people and the ethnic Nuer of Machar. The fighting has since killed thousands and displaced many more.