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South Sudan president signs peace deal, with reservations

– Revisiting the deal –

The deal gives the rebels the post of first vice president, which means that Machar would likely return to the job from which he was sacked in July 2013, an event which put the country on the path to war later that year.

Fighting erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, unleashing a wave of killings that has split the country along ethnic lines.

At the ceremony in Juba, the government released a list of concerns to be addressed for the peace accord to take hold.

“It is not a Bible, it is not the Koran, why should it not be revisited?” Kiir said of the deal.

“Let us give ourselves time and see how we can correct these things.”

The government cited concerns over provisions on the makeup of a monitoring commission tasked with policing the deal and on the demilitarization of Juba that would give greater powers to the rebels.

Despite Kiir’s reservations, regional leaders welcomed the accord.

“This is the day the people of South Sudan have been waiting 20 months for,” said Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

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“This was not a just war, it was an unjust war. It was a wrong war, at a wrong place, at a wrong time – and the sooner you finish it the better,” said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Under the deal, Museveni has 45 days to withdraw troops that he had sent to South Sudan to shore up Kiir’s forces.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the signing and said the challenge now before South Sudan’s leaders was to implement the peace deal.

“The road ahead will be difficult,” said Ban.

Some 2.2 million people have been driven from their homes in the conflict. About 200,000 terrified civilians are sheltering at UN bases.

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