The government is not happy with IGAD for not inviting it to the recent meeting of the regional leaders with Barrack Obama in Addis Ababa, the Ministry of Foreign has said.

The meeting discussed, among other issues, the South Sudan peace process.

It was attended by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, the Ugandan President Yuweri Musevini, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

It was also attended by the Foreign Minister of Sudan Ibrahim Gandur, AU Commission Chairperson Dr. Delamini Zuma and other stakeholders in the peace process.

However, the South Sudan government and the opposition were not invited to attend the discussion.

“Any issues to be discussed, we need to be there to represent the country in that forum,” said Amb Mawien Makol, Spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs ministry.

He says the government is writing a letter of protest to the IGAD.

“We thought it would be really good for us to write a letter of protest to the Chair of the Council of IGAD, which is now chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ethiopia, that it was not good for that meeting to take place without the presence or representation of the government of South Sudan since the issues that were being discussed were about South Sudan and the peace,” he added.

After the meeting on Tuesday, president Obama said he would work with regional leaders to compel South Sudan leaders to make peace.

Mr Obama said President Salva Kiir and Dr Riek Machar must sign a peace deal next month or face consequences of their actions.