The SPLM National Liberation Council is holding an emergency meeting in Juba. The discussions revolve around reorganization of the party.

A delegation of former political detainees led by former party secretary general, Pagan Amum, is taking part.

This follows a meeting of the political bureau yesterday to discuss the full implementation of the Arusha Agreement for reuniting the party.

The spokesman of the government delegation to Arusha, Akol Paul Khordit, says the meeting of the National Liberation Council will be followed by a summit of five heads of state in Tanzania.

He says Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Deslagn, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Jacob Zuma of South Africa will participate in the meeting.

Mr Akol says the leaders will join their Tanzanian counterpart, Jakaya Kikwete, this week to try to convince Dr Riek Machar to join full implementation of the Arusha Agreement.

“The purpose of this summit, they want Riek to go to Arusha so that they can convince Riek to join the peace process through the party as a way to find peace in this country because we are one party,” Mr Kordit said.

In the Arusha agreement, the signatories vowed to comply with the provisions of a cessation of hostilities agreement reached nearly a year ago, and to make a “public apology to the people of South Sudan for what has happened since December 15, 2013.”

They also agreed to “combat the culture of tribalism, militarism and sectarianism” in politics, and to work toward building a South Sudan in which political efforts are focused on democracy and development.