S. Sudan’s dialogue committee to meet opposition leader

The South Sudan's dialogue committee Thursday said it would consult all the stakeholders, including armed opposition leader Riek Machar, in a bid to restore peace.

Betty Achan, the deputy co-chair of the National Dialogue Steering Committee, said two high-level committees have been formed to meet Machar and other former political detainees, a group of former Cabinet ministers who were shortly detained after the war broke out in 2013.

Talking to journalists in the capital Juba, Achan expressed hope that Machar would welcome the dialogue committee.

He said dialogue with the opposition leaders would help end the civil war in the world's youngest nation.

South Sudan has been ravaged by more than three years of civil war and ethnic violence which broke out in late 2013 after South Sudan President Salva Kiir sacked his Vice President Machar.

Kiir initiated the dialogue last year, saying it would help unite the country and reconcile the people deeply divided by conflict since 2013.

However, he (Kiir) had said anyone is allowed to take part in the dialogue except Machar.

The opposition leader in return rejected the dialogue proposal describing it as 'bogus', adding it is another campaign by the regime to derail the peace process.