A recess of South Sudan peace talks has been extended to October 27, a source with the mediating East African trade bloc said Sunday.
“The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has decided to postpone the talks to October 27,” the source, who asked not to be named, told Anadolu Agency, giving no further details.
The Djibouti-based bloc announced last week that talks, which had originally been slated to resume on October 16, would be postponed for further four days with the aim of giving more time for consultations with the two parties to the conflict.
South Sudan has been shaken by violence since late last year, when President Salva Kiir accused Riek Machar, his sacked vice president, of plotting to overthrow his regime.
Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have since been displaced in the fighting between the two rivals, leading to an increasingly dire humanitarian situation for much of the population.
In recent months, the warring camps have held on-again, off-again peace talks in Addis Ababa under the IGAD sponsorship.
Earlier, the IGAD-sponsored talks were adjourned on October 5 due to outstanding differences between the two sides over the issues of federalism, power sharing and the country’s post-transitional period.
