South Sudan president integrates rival's officers into unified army command
South Sudan's government announced on Tuesday the creation of a unified armed forces command, after President Salva Kiir ordered military officers loyal to his vice president, Riek Machar, to be officially integrated into a unified command of the army, state media. This move implements a key provision of the 2018 peace deal that ended five years of civil war. Frequent outbreaks of violence over the past few years have raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict, as the two sides remained deadlocked over major issues such as ethnic divisions and the unification of their forces, with troops loyal to Mr Kiir and Mr Machar fighting against each other. But last week, the president and his deputy signed an agreement to unify the command of the security forces, easing political tension in the African country. The duo agreed to a 60-40 distribution in favour of Mr Kiir's side of leadership posts in the army, police and national security forces. Mr Machar also submitted a list of o...