Information Minister Michael Makuei addressing media in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 20 May 2018 | photo | Hellen Achayo

The Minister of Information says the parties have disagreed over issues of governance, and referred the matter to the meeting between President Salva Kiir and Dr. Riek Machar.

Over the last one week, representatives of the South Sudanese warring partners have been engaged in close door meetings in Addis Ababa to try and narrow the gap over the IGAD’s bridging proposal.

The parties’ discussions revolved around issues of governance and transitional security arrangements. The talks ended yesterday.

According to IGAD, the delegates were expected to agree on the power sharing ratio, composition of the next government, responsibility sharing, allocation of responsibilities, and structure and composition of state governments.

“The security team managed to make progress, and those provisions which have been agreed upon are now being prepared in their final form and will be initialed by the Generals,” Michael Makuei told the media in Addis Ababa on Monday.

However, Makuei says the negotiators failed to agree, and referred issues of governance to be addressed by President Kiir and Dr. Machar in their highly anticipated meeting tomorrow.

Makuei told the state television SSBC from Addis Ababa that they only agreed on security arrangements.

He says President Kiir and Dr. Machar are expected to break the deadlock, and the outcome of their meeting will be presented to IGAD this week.

“As for the governance cluster, it’s decided that some of the outstanding issues will be addressed by President Salva and Riek Machar when they meet face-to-face on the 20^th of this month,” he stated.

“So everything is suspended, awaiting the face-to-face meeting after which maybe a draft will be prepared and presented to the IGAD’s Council of Minister for consideration.”

The meeting between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar is also expected to address the outstanding issues of the Transitional National Legislature and the question of system of governance.

So far, the parties, according to Makuei, have agreed on the modalities of the permanent ceasefire and cantonment of all forces, unification of forces and strategic defense and security review.

The IGAD Council of Ministers is expected to present their final report to the region’s heads of state meeting this weekend for the way forward over the South Sudan’s peace process.