She’s a 29 year-old United Nations worker from the Netherlands.

Only four African countries now remain free of coronavirus infections.

The COVID 19 patient in South Sudan is recovering well.

She returned from a home visit shortly before the UN declared a travel ban on its staff in South Sudan.

World Health Organisation workers are tracing those who came into close contact with her.

Seven years of civil that killed 50 000 – and possibly eight times that amount – and displaced four million, has left South Sudan is pitifully under resourced to fight a pandemic like COVID 19.

It has four ventilators to serve it 11-million population.

African cases of COVID 19 now exceed 9000 with 444 deaths.

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But observers’ are holding thumbs that this initiative will bring peace after several failed efforts in the world’s youngest country.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir used encouraging words like irreversible to describe the power-sharing deal his done with Riek Machar.

And the rebel leader promised that his compatriots’ suffering was over.

Recalling how the previous peace five year ago broke down with Machar fleeing the country dampens expectations.

Observers say there are still many loose ends on security arrangements.

With 400 000 people killed in seven years of civil war, settling scores could drive South Sudan back into the conflict that has displaced millions.

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Their 11th-hour gesture came on the international deadline set with sanctions threatening.

So many peace efforts have foundered before they could end the bitter seven-year civil war in South Sudan.

Both President Salva Kiir and Rebel Leader Riek Machar were determined to announced that that this tenuous process would succeed.

At the swearing in ceremony in the capital Juba, Kiir described Machar as his brother and called him his partner in a peace government.

Machar promised he and Kiir will work collectively to end South Sudan’s long suffering.

Three other vice presidents were sworn in- none of them as important as Machar.

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There’s some skepticism about whether the pact will hold after a succession of failed deals.

In terms of the agreement struck in Juba, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir will make rebel leader Riek Machar his first deputy president and provide protection for him and his staff.

The power-sharing government will be the culmination of a process following the signing of a peace deal in September 2018 to end the seven year civil war that has cost 400 000 lives and created the worst refugee crisis in Africa.

The encouraging news is offset by a United Nations Commission for Human Rights report charging Kiir with pillaging national finances and allowing deadly attacks on his foes by militia. 

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The world’s newest country faces sanctions if agreement is not reached by Saturday.

The logjams outnumber the breakthroughs in South Sudan’s short and troubled history.

The death toll from six years of civil war approaches 400 000.

Sticking point now is dividing the country between President Salva Kiir’s Dinka and the Nuer of rebel leader and former deputy president Riek Machar.

Kiir has made concessions, reducing his proposed 32 states to 10.

Machar says Kiir is still trying to grab the lion’s share by setting up special administrative areas to govern the oil-rich portions that could ensure prosperity for the country once peace is achieved.

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It is not clear if he will return to set up a unity government by the deadline of February 22.

South Africa’s Deputy President David Mabuza is mediating the on-off peace efforts in South Sudan.

It is stalled on the issue of the number of states in Africa’s youngest country.

At independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan had 10 states.

President Salva Kiir increased this number to 28 and then 32.

Riek Machar, who returned to Juba last September, maintains that at most South Sudan can have 23 states based on colonial boundaries.

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African religious leader meeting in Nairobi have urged regional government to ensure the South Sudanese implement the peace deal signed a year ago.

Riek Machar has gone home for the first time since last October and reached an agreement with President Salva Kiir on ending  the bitter civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced a third of the population in Africa’s newest country. 

As the two leaders were shaking hands in Juba, religious groups urged neighboring government to maintain pressure on the South Sudan parties to make good on the latest of their undertakings.

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On the international day of  missing persons, it reminded government of their international obligation to prevent this.

South Sudan plunged into civil two years after becoming Africa’s youngest state in 2011.

More than four million people have been displaced by the fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross supports families searching for missing relatives.

This year it has registered 451 cases, bringing to 4275 the number of people missing since the war began.

ICRC representative James Reynolds says each case represents a family facing the agony of not knowing what happened to their loved one.

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South Africa opposes the move saying it can aggravate the political process implementing a peace agreement struck last September.

ends intro

South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, China and Russia abstained in the United  Nations Security Council vote.

Non governmental bodies like the International Crisis Group urged the UN powerhouse to extend the sanctions.

They concur with the position of Britain and the United States that the proliferation of arms in South Sudan is adding to the misery of its people, six-and-a-half million of whom are food insecure.

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The regional authority IGAD insists President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar remain committed to a lasting peace.

The delay in forming a unity government in South Sudan  is ascribed to lack of political will, financial shortages and time constraints.

Meeting in Addis Ababa, the Intergovernmental Agency on Development, points out that only 27 of the 59 essential tasks before formation of a unity government  have been completed.

The regional body says it’s confident the process will continue, ending the civil war that has torn South Sudan since 2013 with a death toll approaching 400 000 and two million people driven from their homes – the largest displacement on the planet.

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