The Governor of Yei River State has said that a peace agreement signed between his state government and armed groups in the area improve dialogue.

Lokonga Moses said his county commissioners signed the deal with representatives of armed groups in Kampala in March, through the mediation of Bishop Elias Taban of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Lokonga arrived in Juba yesterday, saying he wants to brief the President about the agreement.

He spoke to reporters about the key provisions of the deal.

“There is an area of assembly which has been agreed and this area has been agreed within the people who have signed the agreement, the commissioners and the armed group leaders. There are two places: Iraga and Kendila. The other one is the opening of the road. It is very important. They pledged that they will not attack the moving convoys of the SPLA. It was put there in the provision that if you said really that the government could not be able to harm us, we wanted to come to Yei. I think the leaders of the rebels came to Yei. They came to my office. We held a meeting. We had time to sit with them. They walked. They saw Yei and they were convinced and we had supper with them and they are happy and they have confirmed that it is true that the government is meaning dialogue and they went back,” Governor Lokonga said.

Under this new peace agreement, governor Lokonga said the armed groups have agreed to move away from the areas where civilians have settled.

He said the armed groups are also asking for their security in the assembling areas.