Signing ceremony just started. It's Peace at last in South Sudan

Quote: South Sudan government, rebels set to sign peace deal By Jenny Vaughan (AFP) – 2 hours ago Addis Ababa — South Sudan's government and rebels are expected to sign a peace deal later Thursday, mediators said, in the first sign of a possible breakthrough in efforts to end the month-old conflict. The world's newest nation has been at war since December 15, with thousands killed, close to half a million forced to flee their homes and atrocities allegedly committed by both sides. But mediators from the East African regional bloc IGAD, which has been brokering talks in a luxury hotel in the Ethiopian capital for more than three weeks, said a peace deal was now imminent. "There is going to be a signing ceremony... by the South Sudanese parties at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) today," mediators from the regional bloc IGAD said in a statement. Fighting broke out between rival army units in the capital Juba on December 15, with President Salva Kiir accusing his sacked deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup. The conflict quickly deteriorated into all-out war between the regular army, who are being backed by Ugandan troops, and defectors and ethnic militia, with the violence taking on an ethnic dimension as members of Kiir's Dinka tribe clashed with Machar's Nuer group. Aid workers and analysts say the conflict has left up to 10,000 dead, while around half a million people have fled their homes. The peace deal presented by IGAD mediators is expected to cover a ceasefire agreement and monitoring mechanism, and address the issue of 11 detainees close to Machar who were arrested after the fighting started -- the issue that has been the main sticking point in the talks. A draft accord, seen by AFP and presented to peace delegates meeting in Addis Ababa, notes the "scale of human suffering" since fighting broke out. The ceasefire proposal specifically highlights that both sides must "refrain" from attacking civilians, carrying out summary executions and using child soldiers as well as committing "rape, sexual abuse and torture". A rebel spokesperson said he believed a breakthrough could happen soon, but could not provide details of a possible deal. "It seems as if something could happen," Yohanis Musa Pouk told AFP. Abuses 'as bad as in Syria' On Monday government forces recaptured the town of Malakal situated in the strategic oil-producing Upper Nile state and the last major settlement under rebel control. Large numbers of rebel forces, however, are still massed in rural areas and smaller towns. Jan Egeland, a former United Nations aid chief and now head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), also warned Thursday that reports of large-scale recruitment of child soldiers signalled that the month-old conflict could still get worse. "We're very, very concerned that there's more and more killings along ethnic lines. That started as a purely political struggle among men who could have settled this in a political bargaining process. Now women and children die because these men are not willing to sit down and talk," Egeland told AFP. "The gruesome slaughtering of defenceless civilians is as bad as in Syria, in Somalia, as elsewhere. The whole point here is that it can be avoided, it should be avoided, it must be avoided," he said. "What perhaps is particularly worrying now is the reports we hear now from our hundreds of local staff now that they see the recruitment of child soldiers among ethnic groups. So as bad as it is now, it can get infinitely worse if it is not stopped in time," he added. A report released Wednesday by South Sudan's presidency detailed devastation in the town of Bor while it was under rebel control, accusing the rebels of executing 127 patients in the hospital. Bor, which has swapped hands four times in the conflict, was left with corpses littering the streets and scores of buildings razed to the ground. The government report could not be independently verified, but civilians in Bor have recounted to AFP grim stories of how the rebels gang-raped and murdered patients in the town's hospital. The United Nations has said it is investigating widespread reports of atrocities and war crimes -- including massacres, gang rapes and summary executions -- committed by both sides[/QUOTE شكرآ الأخ الكريم كوـستاوي لهذا الخبر المفرح المهم]