Uhuru headed to Ethiopia for IGAD Summit on South Sudan

What you need to know:

Mr Kenyatta will join other leaders in the latest regional push for a lasting solution to the challenges facing the world’s youngest nation.

President Uhuru Kenyatta this afternoon travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend an IGAD Summit on South Sudan.

On arrival, the President was received by Senior Ethiopian Government officials and the Kenyan Embassy staff led by Amb. Catherine Mwangi.

The President is accompanied by the Foreign affairs Cabinet Secretary Amb. Amina Mohammed among other senior government officials.

Immediately after his arrival, the President who is the IGAD rappoteur on South Sudan headed straight to the summit which is currently underway in Addis Ababa.

The summit which include Assembly of Heads of State and Government of IGAD and the African Union Ad-hoc Committee on South Sudan, referred to as the IGAD Plus will deliberate on the current crisis facing South Sudan.

The meeting is being chaired by the current Chairperson of the IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government who is also the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

The meeting which is aimed at coming up with a sustainable solution to South Sudan crisis is also being attended by representatives from the United Nations, African Union and Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on the progress of the implementation of the Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements in South Sudan.

IGAD has sharply criticized parties involved in the current hostilities in South Sudan and expressed its displeasure on reports of widespread and increased acts of conflict related sexual violence, especially rape (including gang rape) of women and girls in youngest African nation.

IGAD said the horrendous acts may in essence constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity within the ambit of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 of 2008.

Fresh fighting erupted in Juba early last month between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his then First Vice President Riek Machar, threatening to move South Sudan back to civil war.

The renewed hostilities undermined a peace deal signed last August between the parties involved in the South Sudan conflict.

Presidents Kenyatta, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn helped mediate the negotiations that culminated in the signing of the peace agreement.