President Salva Kiir and the leader of the main rebel group, Riek Machar, signed up to the ceasefire and power-sharing agreement earlier this month after an initial deal in June aimed to end fighting that first broke out in 2013. Kiir’s government and some small opposition groups had initialled the draft at a ceremony hosted by Khartoum outside the Sudanese capital earlier on Tuesday, but Machar’s SPLM-IO and another rebel group refused to sign, saying that disputes over power sharing and a new constitution had been left out. “Intensive negotiations with Dr. Riek Machar … has led to Dr. Riek Machar agreeing to initial the final peace agreement the day after tomorrow, on Thursday, August 30,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed said in a statement.
