S.Sudan rivals seal security pact in peace 'milestone'

In what has been hailed as a major breakthrough, South Sudan's rival leaders sealed an agreement Sunday on a key military provision of their stuttering peace deal.

President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, agreed on the creation of a unified armed forces command, one of several crucial unresolved issues holding up implementation of the 2018 deal to end the country's bloody five-year civil war.

"Peace is about security and today we have (achieved) a milestone," said Martin Abucha, who signed the agreement on behalf of Machar's opposition SPLM/A-IO. 

Minister of presidential affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin hailed the deal -- signed following mediation by neighbouring Sudan -- as a "necessary step... that opens a route for the stable government of the Republic of South Sudan".

Tensions between forces loyal to Kiir and former rebel leader Machar have spiralled recently, triggering fears in the international community of a return to full-blown conflict in the world's youngest nation.

Both men were at the ceremony in the capital Juba for the signing of the accord, which stipulates a 60-40 distribution in favour of Kiir's side of key leadership posts in the army, police and national security forces.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the number two in Sudan's post-coup ruling council, had arrived in Juba on Friday in a bid to break the deadlock over the security arrangements.

Sudan, one of the guarantors of the 2018 deal, drew up the proposal after Kiir on March 25 issued a presidential decree on the formation of the military command structure, a move that had been swiftly rejected by Machar as a "unilateral" action.

Landlocked South Sudan, one of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves, has suffered from chronic instability since it declared independence from Sudan in 2011, spending almost half of its life as a nation at war. 

It has struggled to draw a line under the 2013-2018 conflict that erupted after Kiir accused Machar of an attempted coup. Almost 400,000 people lost their lives and millions more were displaced by the fighting.