By Parach Mach 

JUBA, South Sudan

President Salva Kiir and his longtime political rival and ex-rebel leader Riek Machar will meet in Mauritania early July, a government spokesman said on Thursday.  

Michael Makuei, who is also the country’s information minister, told Anadolu Agency in capital Juba that the two leaders will hold talks in Nouakchott in July as proposed by the East African regional bloc -- the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).  

This is their meeting in nearly two years since the July 2016 fighting in Juba that sent Machar into forced exile in South Africa. The renewed violence spread across the country, and numerous new-armed opposition groups, most of them driven by local agendas formed, further complicating peace efforts.  

“President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar will meet in Mauritania; this move is aimed at reviving the peace deal; the government is ready to use any approach to pursue peace and bring an end to the conflict,” Makuei said.  

He said the meeting seeks to build on diplomatic efforts by the Arab League.  

This proposal comes after several attempts organized by the IGAD in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa failed to halt the four-and-half-year conflict.  

Machar has been under house arrest in South Africa since 2016. In March, the IGAD Council of Ministers resolved to release him from house arrest and relocate him to another country that does not share borders with South Sudan on the condition that he renounces violence and does not undermine the peace talks -- a move that the opposition criticized while demanding their leader to be freed without conditions as per the cessation of hostilities agreement on prisoners of war signed in December 2017.    

Kiir and Machar’s future has been a key sticking point in years of failed peace efforts. The coalition of opposition alliance has demanded both leaders step aside as part of a political transition, something the South Sudanese government has adamantly rejected.  

South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup, an accusation Machar denied.  

Tens of thousands have died and nearly four million South Sudanese have been driven from their homes, while millions are going hungry amid a massive humanitarian crisis.