The IGAD Assembly at the 31st IGAD Extraordinary Summit on the Current Situation in South Sudan. June 12, 2017. Photo by Office of the Prime Minister

The summit of IGAD heads of state and government has decided to convene a meeting of the signatories of the South Sudan peace agreement to discuss ways to revitalize the implementation.

The extraordinary meeting was called for by the Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgn, who is the chairperson of the regional body.

Convening the forum is one of the resolutions of the emergency summit held in Addis Ababa on Monday.

The summit decided that the meeting, known as High-level Revitalization Forum, will include all the groups to discuss concrete measures to restore permanent ceasefire.

The forum will also discuss full implementation of the Peace Agreement and develop a revised and realistic timeline and implementation schedule towards a democratic election at the end of the transitional period.

The summit mandates the IGAD Council of Ministers to urgently convene and facilitate this forum in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

The Chairperson of JMEC and the Executive Secretary of IGAD have been directed to provide the necessary secretariat and logistical arrangements.

The summit also called on the EU and the IGAD Secretariat to urgently convene a meeting of the Friends of JMEC to discuss among others the role to be played by partners of IGAD in the implementation resolutions of the forum.

The call for a revitalization meeting came after the regional body said the security situation is worsening and has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of internally displaced persons and refugees.

The communique says that Ambassador Ismail Wais has been appointed as the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan.

The summit was attended by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, South Sudanese First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, Ethiopian and Somali Prime Ministers, and Djiboutian and Kenyan Foreign Ministers.