Why S’Sudan peace deal must be sustained, by Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that the cost of allowing the peace deal among the Southern Sudan leaders to break could have a devastating effect on the stability of the region.

He therefore, pledged that he and other members of the African Union High-Level Consultative Committee on South Sudan would do their best to ensure that the peace agreement signed by the various political factions in the country is successfully implemented.

Speaking at an audience with South Sudan’s First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, Buhari assured him that Nigeria and the committee would work with all stakeholders to overcome problems hindering the implementation of the seven-month old agreement.

“The situation must not deteriorate”, Buhari told the Dhurgon, who is a signatory to the peace agreement.
Expressing concern that compliance with the agreed ceasefire in South Sudan has not been total, Buhari said that Nigeria would work in collaboration with other members of the African Union to achieve a speedy stabilisation of the situation.
The president advised leaders of South Sudan not to allow ethnicity and corruption to gain a foothold in the new country.

“Ethnicity and corruption are a lethal combination. You have to deal with them otherwise instability will continue,”
Buhari also received a Special envoy of the African Union Chairman, President Idris Deby-Itno.
The envoy, Mr Abubakar Saleh Chahaimi delivered a message from President Deby to on the strengthening of bilateral relations between Nigeria and Chad, as well as the work of the African Union Consultative Committee on South Sudan.