South Sudan rebel leader doubtful about truce offer

South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar has expressed suspicion about the government’s offer of an immediate ceasefire, calling for proper talks before giving consent to the truce.

On Friday, East African leaders acting as peace brokers announced that the government of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir had agreed to a truce.

“We have agreed in principle to a ceasefire to begin immediately, but our forces are prepared to defend themselves if attacked,” the government said in a statement issued on Friday evening.

Following the announcement, Machar, who was speaking to the state-run British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from an undisclosed location, stated that there must be proper talks before the rebels could agree to the ceasefire.

Machar added that he had a negotiating team ready but any ceasefire had to be serious, credible and properly monitored.

“So until mechanisms for monitoring are established, when one says there is a unilateral ceasefire, there is no way that the other person would be confident that this is a commitment,” he said.

Machar also called for the release of all of his 11 political allies who were detained at the beginning of the conflict in the African country.

The regional leaders brokering an end to the crisis in South Sudan have given Machar and Kiir four days to hold face-to-face talks and stop fighting, vowing “further action” if the war continues.

The development came as, according to a UN spokesman in New York, a 72-member UN police contingent arrived in South Sudan on Friday to spearhead the mission by the 6,000 extra troops authorized by the UN Security Council on December 24 to boost the UN mission in the violence-hit country.

More troops and equipment will arrive on Saturday; and when all the reinforcements come, they will almost double the size of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to a total of up to 12,500 soldiers and 1,300 police.

The fighting began in South Sudan on December 15 after President Kiir accused Machar of attempting to stage a coup.

The government in Juba has been grappling with rampant corruption, unrest and conflict in the deeply impoverished but oil-rich nation.