IGAD Council of Ministers in a meeting in Juba on Monday, July 24, 2017 | Photo | Ethiopian Diplomacy (@mfaethiopia) | Twitter

The IGAD Council of Ministers has urged the Steering Committee of the National Dialogue to expedite the presidential initiative.

An attempt by the committee to get former First Vice President Dr Riek Machar and Dr Lam Akol to join the initiative failed.

Dr. Machar reportedly refused to meet the delegation led by the Co-Chair of the National Dialogue Steering Committee, Angelo Beda, in South Africa earlier this month.

In a communiqué of the 58th Extra-ordinary Session of IGAD Council Of Ministers on the Situation in South Sudan, the body said it “encourages the Steering Committee of the South Sudan National Dialogue in reaching out to the opposition”.

The IGAD Council of Ministers chaired by the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Workney Gebeyehu, said given the importance of the national dialogue as a complementary process to the implementation of the peace deal, the steering committee should expeditiously move forward in “an inclusive, genuine and transparent manner”.

The ministers commenced the high-level revitalization forum which was arrived at during the 31^st IGAD Extraordinary Summit in Addis Ababa last month.

Read the full communiqué here: Communique of the 58th Extra-Ordinary Session of IGAD Council of Ministers on South Sudan