South Africa Joins Mediation To Promote Peace In South Sudan

              South Africa government said on Wednesday in Cape Town, that the Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa would represent South Africa President Jacob Zuma, on the mediation to promote peace in South Sudan.

The Presdency said in a press statement that, Ramaphosa, in his capacity as Special Envoy to South Sudan, would attend unity talks among factions of South Sudan's People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), scheduled for Arusha, Tanzania.

It said Ramaphosa would participate and bear witness to the signing of a unity agreement between different sections of the SPLM.

It said the unity agreement was facilitated by South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), Chama-cha Mapinduzi of Tanzania and National Resistance Movement of Uganda.

When South Sudan became a sovereign state on 9 July 2011, SPLM became the ruling party of the new republic.

SPLM branches in Sudan separated themselves forming the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.

Further factionalism appeared as a result of the 2013-2014 South Sudanese Civil War, with President Salva Kiir leading the SPLM-Juba and former Vice President Riek Machar leading the SPLM-IO.