East African leaders said late on Monday they would try and push South Sudan's warring sides to revive collapsed peace efforts and delay elections currently scheduled for August next year to a more realistic date. Fighting broke out at the end of 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his rival Riek Machar as vice president, just two years after South Sudan's independence from Sudan. IGAD said on Monday their new forum would include "estranged groups" and discuss ways of implementing the peace deal. South Sudan's new vice president, Taban Deng Gai, had asked Monday's meeting to bar Machar from any future forums. Gai also said elections should go ahead as planned - a position initially backed by Yoweri Museveni, the president of South Sudan's neighbour Uganda, according to diplomats at the talks.

Source: The Star June 13, 2017 09:56 UTC