South Sudan’s exiled opposition leader Riek Machar says he is ready to meet his rival President Salva Kiir to talk peace, if certain conditions on his freedom were met.
In a letter to Kiir’s security adviser, seen by AFP Friday, Machar laid out a series of demands before the pair could sit down face-to-face in Juba.
South Sudan slid into war in 2013 just two years after gaining independence, when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup.
But the rivals struck a peace deal in September and agreed to set up a unity government.
That power-sharing arrangement was supposed to take effect in May but was delayed until November, and the process has stalled.
Machar said he was ready to sit down face-to-face with Kiir and discuss a way forward if certain assurances were made.