The East African bloc, IGAD, encouraged President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar to work together to end the ongoing civil war.
Kiir has recently turned down the proposal to work together with rebel chief Riek Machar after face-to-face talks in Addis Ababa.
His information minister Michael Makuei last Thursday said Machar will not participate in the would-be transitional unity government until elections are conducted.
In its communiqué after the 32nd extraordinary summit of heads of state and government, IGAD commended the South Sudanese parties and stakeholders for making significant progress in the revitalization process and called upon them to make further compromises and expeditiously conclude the process.
The regional leaders decided that the opposition leader Riek Machar is free to leave South Africa to any country of his choice except the IGAD region and that he will be allowed to enter into and exit from Sudan and Kenya for the duration of the peace process.
The regional bloc also decided to deliberate on Machar’s final status at the upcoming ordinary summit of the IGAD Assembly.
The bloc mandated Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to facilitate a second round of face–to-face discussion between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar within two weeks to build on the Addis Ababa face-to-face talks.
It also said Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta will facilitate a third round of face-to-face discussion between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar in Nairobi to facilitate the revitalization process and report the outcome and way forward to the upcoming ordinary session of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government.
The communiqué instructed the IGAD Council of Ministers to give guidance to Special Envoy for South Sudan on the remaining tasks to finalize the IGAD bridging proposal at the sideline of the 33rd African Union Summit to be held in Noukacheut, Mauritania.
The IGAD leaders, according to the communiqué, condemned in the strongest terms the repeated violations of the ceasefire deal by the parties and decided that Sudan and Kenya will further investigate the violation reports submitted by CTSAMM and JMEC and report to the next summit the appropriate targeted punitive measures to be taken.