The FAO says pesticides deliveries to those fighting the pests are being delayed.

Secretary General of  the regional organisation IGAD Workneh Gebeyehu says they’ve been caught between the hammer and anvil.

The lockdown to-stem the COVID 19 pandemic comes at the crunch time for their fight against the desert locus swarms.

Head of Resilience at the Food and Agriculture Organisation Cyril Ferrand says the locusts are endangering the food security of more than 25 million people. 

This morning figures show COVID19 has infected nearly 8 000 people in Africa and killed 334.

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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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Former deputy president turned rebel leader Riek Machar and other opposition figures say the process must be delayed by at least months.

IGAD’s special envoy on South Sudan Imail Wais has summoned the groupings leaders to discuss implementing last September’s peace deal designed to end the civil war that has cost more than 400 000 lives.

The opposition groups have baulked at the proposed cantonment of armed grouping and redeploying them in a neutral security force, arguing that this cannot be done until parties have agreed and signed a power-sharing deal.

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The move’s been welcomed by Britain, the United States and Norway who’ve been pressing the players to make this deal. 

The inking in Addis Ababa of a South Sudanese peace deal has the citizens of that country and its neighbours holding thumbs.

Three years ago, when they last signed an accord,  it fell apart within weeks.

This time the key actors, President Salva Kiir and rebel-leader-turned-vice-president Riek Machar, have been warned  by the members of the regional group IGAD and concerned Western powers, known as the troika,  that anyone breaking the peace will face tough sanctions. 

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She tell a media briefing President Cyril Ramaphosa will be briefed on exactly how this was achieved when he visits Addis Ababa later this month.

Peace efforts in the Horn of Africa are driving the continental agenda in the right direction, says Lindiwe Sisulu.

 ‘In Africa, we are determined to silence the guns by 2020 so the people can have peace and development,” she says.

The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation says South Africa’s also heartened by the intervention of the regional body IGAD in South Sudan which has led to a peace deal being signed between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar.

She hopes that peace will endure

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It follows two days of talks in the Sudanese capital between Juba’s President Salva Kiir and leader leader Riek Machar.

After three failed peace bids, caution is the watchword in reporting on  efforts to end South Sudan’s five year civil war.

Journalists in Khartoum say they’ve actually seen a framework agreement to be inked today.

It commits both sides to a permanent ceasefire and allows the regional grouping IGAD and the African Union to deploy troops to monitor this.

It allows the host country, Sudan to secure the oilfields in its southern  neighbour and reinstate the oil wells.

It establishes Wau and Malakal as capitals of South Sudan along with Juba. 

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They’re meeting in Addis Ababa to a civil war that has killed thousands and driven four million people from their homes.

ends intro

There has not been any statement following yesterday’s meeting mediated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The process puts the regional grouping IGAD back in the spotlight.

If it goes badly, IGAD’s role will be questioned, although there is hardly any alternative body in position to try and end the conflict that has created one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet with more than half a million people reliant on emergency food aid for survival.

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The regional group IGAD is urging both sides to consider proposals that it says are a genuine attempt to find common ground.

Sources close to the peace talks say the rebels led by Riek Machar would not accept the regional plan to give the government of Salva Kiir the lion’s share of a peacetime army in South Sudan.

Kiir, for his part would accept the participation of Machar, who is confined to South Africa, in the peace process.

The breakdown of the talks risks a return to five years of conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives in the country of 12 million people that gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

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It will allow access for humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the four years of fighting and free abducted women and children.

The ceasefire’s been hailed by African Union Commission head Moussa Faki and by the governments of Britain, Norway and the United States who are supporting South Sudanese peace efforts by the regional grouping IGAD.

The fighting has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Just this week hundreds of South Sudanese fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were caught up in  government forces chasing rebels from their headquarters in Lasu town.

A ceasefire agreed in 2015 broke down within a year.

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US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley tells the Security Council that the people of South Sudan are suffering and the promise of their hard-fought independence is slipping away.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley says opposing parties in the world’s newest nation must commit themselves to the revitalization process put forward by the eight-nation East African regional group known as IGAD to resuscitate the peace agreement – and to do so quickly because time is running short.

Hopes for post-independence peace and stability in South Sudan six years ago were dashed when the country plunged into ethnic violence.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.

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