Addis Ababa Talk, May 5, 2014
1. The two parties have been given a comprehensive agenda by IGAD for the talks. The 4 agenda includes the following items:
a) Cessation of hostilities and access to humanitarian organizations; the parties are to discuss why they failed to implement previous agreement and what
needs to be done to commit the parties to stick to the cessation of hostilities agreement signed in January.
2. Discuss transitional interim government and its institutions
a) Charter and mandate
b) Size
c) Who should be part of this government
d) Interim parliament/Assembly
e) Census
f) Elections
g) Security reforms
3. Permanent Constitution for South Sudan
4. Permanent Ceasefire
Reportedly, the rebels have accepted the agenda, but the government is not agreeing to issues 2 (a) (b) (c) (d) (f) (g). The two sides are starting a face-to-face meeting tomorrow to discuss some of these issues on the agenda and based on the nature of the issues, the talks will take at least one to two months.