South Sudan’s Kiir says peace deal remains alive

CAIRO – South Sudan’s president says a peace deal signed to end his country’s civil war is alive and being implemented.

Speaking on Tuesday in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, President Salva Kiir rejected attempts by unnamed parties to renegotiate the August 2015 deal. He said that he and his number two — First Vice-President Taban Deng Gai — were working “very closely” together. He said: “We are implementing the agreement.”

Taban in July replaced exiled opposition leader Riek Machar, who maintains that the deal has collapsed.

South Sudan’s civil war began in 2013. The peace deal did not entirely stop the fighting and it took eight months of negotiations to persuade Machar and his rebel forces to return to the capital, Juba, only for the city to erupt into conflict in July.

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