Uhuru Heads to Ethiopia for S-Sudan Peace Talks

President Uhuru Kenyatta travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday for the IGAD-led South Sudan peace negotiations. Uhuru and other regional leaders will meet South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar. The President left the JKIA in Nairobi at about 2 pm and was seen off by Governor Mike Sonko, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and other government officials.

Machar arrived in Ethiopia on Wednesday for a meeting with Kiir, as part of talks to try to negotiate an end to a five-year-old civil war. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the civil war that broke out in late 2013 when troops loyal to Machar, the former vice president of South Sudan, launched a rebellion against the government.

All sides in the now complex and multi-faceted war stand accused by the United Nations and other bodies of committing atrocities against civilians.