South Sudan Government Allows Rebel Forces to Return to Capital

South Sudan’s warring parties have agreed on a security arrangement that includes allowing 1,370 opposition forces into the capital, opening the way for rebel leader Riek Machar to return to Juba to form a transitional government.

Police and military officers loyal to the SPLM-in-Opposition are expected to travel to Juba immediately, the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission said in a statement on its website on Tuesday following a meeting with the parties. More security forces will join after a power-sharing administration is formed, the group said.

War broke out in South Sudan more than two years ago in a power struggle between allies of President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, forced more than 2 million from their homes and cut oil production.

Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in August under international pressure, agreeing to run a government of national unity for 30 months before holding elections. Fighting has continued despite the promise by both parties to end the violence. Kiir reappointed Machar as his vice president last week.

“It was agreed at today’s JMEC meeting that this number of troops and police would be sufficient for the return of the First Vice President-designate and therefore allow for the establishment of the Transitional Government of National Unity," according to JMEC’s statement on Tuesday.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to arrive on Thursday in South Sudan, where he’ll meet Kiir and visit a UN shelter for civilians affected by the conflict.