Advertisement

Igad cancels planned summit in Juba

Wednesday January 22 2014
327307-01-02

A picture taken on January 19, 2014 shows a SPLA soldiers resting in Bor, the state capital of South Sudan's power-key eastern state of Jonglei, housing thousands of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). A key Igad summit on South Sudan scheduled for Juba on Thursday has been cancelled, Sudan’s government has disclosed. AFP PHOTO / WAAKHE SIMON WUDU

A key Igad summit on South Sudan scheduled for Juba on Thursday has been cancelled, Sudan’s government has disclosed.

Speaking to the Nation, the Sudanese ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Mr Abubakr Al-Sidig, said that his government has officially been notified by the Igad secretariat that the summit had been called off.

The meeting had been called on short notice to discuss the situation in South Sudan.

“We received an urgent memo from Igad’s secretary on Tuesday, saying that they decided to cancel the summit,” the spokesman explained.

“They didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the cancellation.

“We don’t know whether it will be rescheduled to another date or not,” he added.

Advertisement

Igad members – Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and the two Sudans – had agreed to hold the summit in Juba on the coming Thursday.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, who is the African Union chairman, had called the summit in an attempt to push the stalled negotiations between the South Sudanese warring parties in Addis Ababa.

Without going into details, the Sudanese Foreign minister indicated that the summit would discuss the matter of foreign intervention in South Sudan.

Sudan has already expressed concern over Uganda’s military intervention in the ongoing fighting.

READ: Mist over Uganda troops in Juba as body bags arrive

The UN has accused the combatants of committing atrocities against civilians among other serious violations.

More than 10,000 people have reportedly been killed and 400,000 others displaced during the fighting.

Advertisement