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FACE-TO-FACE talks between warring parties in South Sudan have been delayed, government and rebel delegations said Saturday, dashing hopes of a swift ceasefire to end raging battles and risks of all-out civil war.
South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei, part of the delegation to the talks in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, as well as rebel team spokesman Yohanis Musa Pouk, said the two sides would not meet today until an agenda had been drafted by negotiators and agreed by both sides.
However, Makuei confirmed that the two leaders of the delegations met briefly late yesterday, although proper talks had not begun.
“They met,” Makuei told AFP, adding that teams were now “waiting to hear the way forward” from the negotiators, who are from the regional East African IGAD bloc of nations.
“The heads of the two delegations need to agree on an agenda… maybe tomorrow or after tomorrow,” Pouk told AFP.
Deadly conflict erupted last month
Thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the fighting since it erupted on 15 December, pitting army units loyal to President Salva Kiir against a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders nominally headed by his rival, former vice president Riek Machar.
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom had spoken optimistically that direct talks would take place today, after the rival sides spend a day of meeting separately with special envoys from regional nations.
But Addis Ababa’s foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said Saturday the two sides would “have to continue the proxy talks”, meeting separately with negotiators.
“An agenda has to be formulated, and then after this they’ll proceed with face-to-face talks,” Dina told AFP, saying there was no timeline set for direct talks, only that they would happen “as soon as possible.”
“I cannot predict, it depends on the negotiations,” Dina added.
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Good. She was a tarot card reader ffs.
Judge should have thrown it out when he heard that fact.
@bopter: yeah she lost me at tarot cards!!
@Deborah Behan: what about the whole “we need to trust women”.
Bet she didn’t see this coming
I’m delighted with this result. I was following the story a bit and could tell she was just a chancer. Lolol back to the card readings for you
She must have brought fairly strong evidence to get an exhumation in the first place!!..So the state retains his fortune!
I’d say that they took the opportunity to get his DNA sampled and mapped for any further cases like this which could be blown away a lot quicker.
Ah sure, it was worth a shot. She deserves a consolation prize, give her the the lobster telephone.
I wish that they had not disturbed Dad.
@Fiona deFreyne: Lol
Surreal!
Daaaaaaannnnggggg!! Who’s the Spanish Jerry Springer?
@Pat O’Brien: Geraldo Primavera
@Pat O’Brien:
Espringer Espanyol
The Jon Snow of Spain
@Oisín O’Connor: PMSL!!
@Oisín O’Connor: Wouldn’t that be Sand?
So she lied?
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: maybe her mother lied to her grandmother and it got out of hand.
@Deborah Behan: stile a gold digger.
No doubt she has engendered a lucrative increase in business as a result of the publicity surrounding the story.
@Emmet Dillane:
I suspect her clientele will be taking their business elsewhere after this
I knew it wasn’t true. I read it in her tea leaves.
There was only supposed to be one in every pack!
Pure Dali theater .he would come out of his grave for this one .
What a beautiful bit of Surrealist performance art.
She might still appeal..if she has an ace up her sleeve
She does look a lot like him though
@Cathal Mac Einri: I thought she was the head off him!!
@Cathal Mac Einri: Similar moustaches…???
If she was an artist, well maybe, but con-artist doesn’t count?
have your say