South Sudan peace talks resume in Ethiopian capital

ADDIS ABABA - The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) resumed South Sudan peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday with threats of punitive measures against warring sides in the background.

The meeting called "Second Phase of High-Level Revitalization Forum" comes after the December 24, 2017 ceasefire agreement in which warring parties signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA). The deal was broken hours after its enforcement was supposed to start.

IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan, Ismael Wais, called on warring sides to desist from further ceasefire violations to help build and consolidate on the success, trust and confidence established by CoHA.

"The AU, IGAD the UN, and the wider international community have issued strong statements of condemnation of CoHA violation and warned the consequences for spoilers and violators" he said.

"In that regard, the region and the international community are ready to take punitive measures against individuals and organizations that have been verified as violators of this Agreement. These aren't empty threats" he further said.

Heads of the UN, AU and IGAD had during the 30th AU summit last month jointly voiced their frustrations and warned South Sudan's warring factions for violating the recent peace deal.

For Ismael,the threat of consequences for warring South Sudanese sides come out of exasperation from a four-year-old grinding civil war that has killed thousands and displaced millions of people.

Already, starting this month the US imposed arms embargo on South Sudan while the EU put asset freezes and travel bans on three current and former South Sudanese officials.

Paul Sutphin, US State Department senior adviser on Sudan and South Sudan on Monday called for South Sudan's neighbors to undertake arms embargo to pressure warring sides to the negotiating table.

Workineh Gebeyhu, IGAD Council of Ministers Chairman, while not explicitly referencing consequences for warring sides, warned South Sudan parties have reached a critical juncture in the peace process.

Gebeyehu, who is also Ethiopia's foreign minister, said with the CoHA signed last December already violated multiple times, IGAD may be forced to ensure consequences on violators.

"We've reached a critical time to revisit the range of political measures to take on violators and spoilers of Cessation of Hostilities Agreement", he said.

Yan Liang, Deputy Chief of Staff Operation and Logistics of Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), told Xinhua the prospect of sanctions on warring sides should be thought carefully.

JMEC which reports directly to the Heads of State and Government of IGAD, is responsible for monitoring and overseeing the implementation of CoHA and earlier peace agreements.

"The peace process will move forward, not because of the pressure of international community, but because it's the wish of South Sudanese people, we should follow people's will and fight for their country" he said.

"Arms embargo was imposed by US government unilaterally, for IGAD we hope collective efforts could be made based on consensus which can bring all regional partners to help South Sudan, to convince them to come to the negotiating table and stop fighting" further said Yan.

He Xiangdong, Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan, told Xinhua while his country doesn't rule out sanctions as a pressuring point to South Sudanese warring factions, he cautioned it should be coordinated with all relevant parties and take note of possible consequences of sanctions.

"I think on punitive matters we need further consultation with IGAD countries and AU, definitely a certain kind of pressure is needed to push the peace process to move forward, while at the same time be cautious of results of all the possible measures, because we need to put result first, any measure need to be carefully calculated to see if it's helpful to resolve the problems or not" he said.

South Sudan has been embroiled in more than four years of conflict that has taken a devastating toll on the people, creating one of the most severe refugee crises in the world.

The world's newest nation descended into violence after a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy turned rebel chief Riek Machar led to split in the army, leaving soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines.

A 2015 peace agreement aimed at ending the conflict was weakened after the outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016 forced the opposition rebel leader Riek Machar to flee South Sudan.