On south sudans rival leaders finally settling their differences solve a kindred agreed to share power and form a new unity government is a civil war theres off to 3 failed Peace Agreements will this one last this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im mr. Case is finally head thats the promise from south sudans president salva kiir after signing the latest power sharing agreement with his rival but after 2 similar agreements collapsed many are asking if theyve really got it right this time around react russia has once again been sworn in as Vice President their rivalry has triggered a civil war that killed at least 400000 people and displaced millions both sides have been accused of recruiting child soldiers mass rape and starving the south sudanese people have been will get reports from the capital juba. In a scene similar to that witnessed an april 26th after peace deal signed a year earlier Opposition Leader rick machar is once again sworn in as the countrys 1st Vice President. And so began a new transition period for south sudan after more than 5 years of war i went to a sure you we will work collectively. In your long suffering in the 3 other Vice President s were also sworn in a 5th is yet to be appointed its comes as part of a revitalised version of a 2015 peace deal ending the war which started in 2015 the deal brings together several opposition groups it also gives all sides shares in the government cabinet and the Legislative Assembly they join nato what. May have been long. And difficult but we are. Finally here. But swearing in Vice President s is only the beginning of the new government has many challenges ahead before elections are due to be held in 3 years time as part of the deal to end the war south sudanese also friend from high inflation as a result of the years of conflict with hundreds of thousands unable to afford basic goods corruption is also a concern and with the humanitarian effect of the conflict many are hoping for improvement during the transitional period. A quarter of the countrys 12000000 people have been displaced as a result of fighting and more than have rely on food aid with 1200000 of that being children will get out of spread complete trust among the different parties but there is an element of trust. Each of the you know. Representatives in the government needs to have a lot of hope is spent on the new government after years of conflict morgan aljazeera juba. Bullfighting started just 2 years after south sudan won independence from sudan back in 2011 the rivalry between kerry and his deputy react russia triggered a war in 2013 and started when care fired michel and accused him of processing a coup denied any such attempt forces loyal to the leaders fought in the capital juba and across the country the battle soon took an ethnic as karen michel come from different groups a 2015 peace deal brought mashad back as Vice President but that didnt last he went into exile following more fighting in the capital almost a year later in 2800 can michel met for the 1st time in 2 years and signed a new ceasefire agreement paving the way for this power sharing government now. Well lets now bring in our guests in south sudans capital juba we have alan boswell hes Senior Analyst for south sudan at the International Crisis group from paris and france now go to it who is south sudan resets. At Human Rights Watch and in the United States jock mother jock has professor of anthropology at Syracuse University hes also a former official in the south Sudanese Government welcome to you all thank you for joining us on the program and jack im going to start with you because weve seen all of those pictures this week of we are questions how the care how going in smiling and we know that these are 2 men with a very long standing rivalry and what is the state of their past relationship that have those animosities faded certainly not the most of these may be being masked in in the hope that. This will now will transition the country away from gun violence into a state where. People might be able to build rebuild the country and rebuild the relationships. What were seeing in their state mans and the handshakes and smiles for cameras. Tells a story that is not exactly the story of south sudan. What they have said is one thing but what they have left unsaid is really what ails south sudan which is that the government being formed today in yuba is not about the country whatsoever its not about the people who have suffered so immensely its mainly about out a piece in. Themselves piece in the parties that have brought carnage to the country and that really leaves. South sudanese wonder for more look in the eyes of these gentlemen. For signs that this. Actually exist really do translate into peace in the lives of everyday people nobodys world in their breath so also a lot of skepticism here and alan let me ask you about the sense of deja vu i mean we saw this back in 2016 requests are being sworn in and then he was essentially chased out of the capital so whats different this time around if anything. Well for sure there is i think a lot of people south in these and people outside who feel like theyre sort of watching a doomed rerun i think of the events that happened in in 2016 and even before when these guys were in the government in 2013 and theres a lot of skepticism that they can manage to Work Together this time of there are some differences this time which at least maybe lend some hope if not outright limited optimism i think i think for one the main one is that last time react machar came to assume his post and 2016 he had his own basically private militia flown in with him and they immediately securitized the capital juba into competing camps and actually how the war ended up restarting is that when these guys would meet at you know the president ial palace theyd have their own you know elite bodyguards staring at each other people have been fighting for a long time eventually a firefight broke out and that rerouted the war so one of the final parts of this agreement leading up to them actually forming the unity government was that really my charged up to this time to come back at least for the time being in the protection of sounds like yours own forces well big concession set me on both sides and you go how is this being viewed by their supporters because they have been think concessions made and surely there are still some hardliners who are potentially quite unhappy. Well i mean the formation of a unity government is quite a significant step but we have to consider the backdrop under which this is occurring while youre seeing that there are still parties who are outside the Peace Process including the National Soul bush in front and the south sudan opposition movements the National Salvation front has been you know fighting the government in parts of it quit turia and there have been atrocities against civilians committed by both sides. So walking into this government is. So there is a lot that will need to be done and key of which is whether this government will be able to deliver especially where you it is a government of the elites some of whom have had command responsibility off of abuses for the last 67 years and others who are sanctioned by the u. N. By the United Nations by the European Union and also by the u. S. Governments so there will have to be a lot of considerations made. About. How this governments is going to deliver at all show him you say its a government of elites in these discussions were taking place this week alan youre sitting in juba and i see even after south can made what he called this painful concession about a number of states and well come to that in a moment but i want to talk about the turn of the discussions here and the shah seems not very pleased about that so how did this actually get across the line. Yeah i mean i talked about the concession that i react machar made in the in the final days but as you mentioned the president here made a really big compromise one week before this formation about one week ago and that was to revert cut the country back to its original 10 states and this issue this dispute over the configuration of states in the country how many of them their boundaries have become just an absolute deadlock and is actually preventing the Peace Process from moving forward at all i think in many ways the number of states that sounded you know it sounds quite abstract to a lot of people but essentially during this war you had a lot of territorial gerrymandering both sides formed their own states and became a matter of a great dispute about when they formed a unity government what what the state should be and where their boundaries are would be and you had certain groups who felt like basically their land was was taken in and extend this war who are who are vowing not to participate in the Peace Process move forward otherwise so what really moved in the in the final in the final few weeks was that we saw really for the 1st time since id say 2018 the regional leaders are really step in and put these you know sit these 2 down and really insist on a on a on a compromise on this issue and and and they priced here especially to revert back to these 2 these 10 states and he did so and that meant you know firing 32 governors taking away states that had been given to certain groups so that was definitely not an easy thing for him to do but he did do that like you said there is some dispute about it because he reverted to 10 states but there was 3 administrative areas 2 of which how to exist before one of which was especially controversy one was was new but it wasnt those those coffee outs were not enough to keep blocking the Peace Process ok and a lot of divisions still exist and just can you come to you because one of the other. Outstanding issues here it is an army an integrated army and there are at least 40 militia groups across the country in these a fight says that have been battling each other essentially and there are some ethnic tensions there so unsurprisingly its not been easy to try to get them all integrated into one i mean that process was already supposed to have begun how is that going. I know there are really good signs that people are gathering in Training Camps and that potentially National Army a unified National Army will be created from out of these barriers comes bettors training centers. With the but youre right i think any kind of Security Transformation is what is going to make or break any kind of political settlement so far we have seen signs that this is being taken more seriously this time and whether that was the cessation of hostilities or the the the the demands that can torment comes be set up that here that are signs that the is being taken seriously the problem is that integration military integration is not an easy task a specially of the forces that have fought such bitter and vicious conflicts over 6 years. The the the the agreement on formally unified military is being Done Gradually in the sense that some of these commanders will want to see eye to eye but out of course by the realities they the fact is that the government being formed in yuma. Is being seen from the Security Point of view and if security is at the forefront and there and the in. Of all the issues confronting the country many citizens in south sudan will say they will believe it when they see it so there is all. This drought this Transitional Government is going to silence the guns and that is the only sense in which it is being celebrated i want morning and go ahead because i see in notting and i want to ask you been documented human rights abuses around the country. And there have been multiple instances of ethnic cleansing over the course of this conflict and obviously these tensions and these memories still exist. How is this going to be addressed especially when it comes to people returning home to their livelihoods essentially because a lot of this is related to land and livelihoods. Before i get on that point just to piggyback onto jocks point on Security Sector reform this has never been an easy process in south sudan and past experience shows how it has been fraught with. Issues of political will and so what were seeing right now is you know Government Forces have not been contending for the last couple of months though were seeing Opposition Forces continue were not seeing the same on the side of the government particularly the National Security service says itself outside the Peace Process and are not condoning but also the last couple of months over the last couple of years we have seen forces armed groups abducting civilians for the purposes of recruitments and the u. N. Has also documented how over the last one year both sides have been recruiting to increase their forces because containment and Security Sector reform in south sudan is a game of numbers the more people you have the more benefits you have the more ranks you get so what were seeing is also civilians whove been abducted for recruitment purposes or in the case of in most cases of women and girls whove been abducted into armed groups most of them are not getting released and were seeing commanders using the Security Sector reform process and d. D. R. As an excuse for retaining some of the civilians within their ranks and this itself is you know this itself amounts to walk right and so how is this supposed to be addressed the Peace Agreement in south sudan the has brought this unity government is not just about power sharing that has been an all the focus on governance and power sharing but this is the Peace Agreement has numerous chapters one of which is chapter 5 on Transitional Justice so there is envisioned reparations a hybrid car that is supposed to be established together with the african union. Can isnt for truth reconciliation and healing and you know having. Into the speeches of the leaders of the last 2 days its been about reconciliation reconciliation but in actual fact you know 67 years of of of this kind of crisis we have seen brutal abuses and some of which are still going on. And so it will be one of the benchmarks and one of the important issues that we hope to see and that even Civil Society have been pushing for is. Accountability the establishment of this Justice Mcmahon isms the status stablish mental reparations bodies because this unity government is just a vehicle to you know to elections and prominent constitutional reforms and other reforms it is just a tool a means to an end a means to an end and a unity government a name and we do have that but im wondering as were talking about if it will actually change anything on the ground so i do want to take a look at the what life is like for millions of south sudanese and we have a few numbers here and they tell a fairly grim story the u. N. Says close to one and a half 1000000 people are internally displaced 2 and a quarter 1000000 are refugees and Asylum Seekers more than half the population is suffering from severe Food Shortages thats 6 and a half 1000000 people and south sudan is one of the worlds poorest countries 82 percent of the population live on less than a dollar a day and 65 percent cannot read or write alan i know youve been up north over the last few weeks in some fairly remote areas tell us a little bit about what you saw back. You know i think its really difficult to understate just how shattered south sudan is from the civil war i was up in raja which is a you know in the far northwest of the country is not far from dark for in Central African republic and there you just saw you know you just drive and you drive and you go through just empty neighborhood after empty neighborhood houses destroyed walls caved in their rooms are stripped it looks like the town is little more than a ghost town you have some core population but thats about it most fly during the war some want to rebel held territory others a bunch of them when they fled to sudan to the refugee camps and you can imagine how terrible conditions must be if youre fleeing into darfur for you know refuge so. And you know and thats the situation ive seen like all over the country really and i mean you know and also just in terms of the ethnic animosity from this war i mean i think it will take generations really for being honest itll take generations for south sudanese i think to fully reconcile and really rebuild from this war but definitely itll take some time it will take quite a lot of time and a little and in that process really wont start until south sudanese really have the confidence to return home which will require these 2 leaders i think really showing that they you know theyre least willing to put whats necessary forward so that they can at least keep the country from going back into conflict and i think that will also take some time chuck let me ask you that question then that alan just pious can people return home such a huge proportion of the population remains in these id if you can is there a sense of growing trust here. Do you need any sense of just yet i didnt it did money too. To bring the country back from the debt economically dead my need to return or rehabilitate such a huge number of people. That have been affected by war and south sudan has huge resources government the question is will these resources be used to domesticate peace or will they be used to appease their leaders and to question those who have been fighting. For their signs out that it is the latter not the former that their leaders for getting this alliance in uganda what is bound to be a huge government a huge military will take much of the expenditure and very little of the Oil Resources will be invested in actually to build in the country im not even talking about in building the infrastructure we use not even on the radar screen im going on about a building the people themselves. Employ didnt as in the relations that have been sort of act by these conflicts is going to take a lot of political will and its going to take a lot of money which starts with one doesnt have a moment and the International Goodwill has been exhausted long ago so you better a little will come in from outside so when we are looking at. Is. An expectation of these political leaders i mean we are much i gave a speech the other day on the or cajun of his swearing in as 1st Vice President. And he fell short of what people thought you were going to Say Something akin to a vision about how the countrys going to move out of these blase about how the country is going to rebuild the relations between its citizens and about how the countrys going to generate resources and revenues to try to give people a sense that peace is going to come and its not just going to come between the elite but its going to translate into their lives on labor day basis some of them theyre going to get the better i do want to ask about the money because i alan i know youve been doing some work on corruption issues here and were talking about the need for more resources in south sudan is corruption likely to be addressed within this unity government and coupled with that how is the International Community viewing this that the u. S. Was very invested in south sudan obviously corruption is a big issue for international dinahs what does the International Community need to be doing for south sudan now. I mean corruptions a massive issue here i will say that you know this isnt something new and even well before south sudans independence it was well known by the International Players including the us that corruption was absolutely rife within the south the new government what was then about to become a state this is recently become a major target for the u. S. But this was something that was well known before the country got independence at a time when many people were were backing that bid and there was a lot of there was a lot of optimism about it so ever since weve seen really this government formed from 2005 and then after weve seen just the the elites really lose this country of its resources and while they agreed in the peace deal to to to change that and give and do reforms i think as a joke noted that you know very few people really have much optimism on that front in fact a lot of people see the sort of opposition whos coming in as people whove been sitting outside with very few resources for many years and theyll be you know and theyll be eager to you know find their own terms of need is the phrase so so this is something that is going to remain a huge problem but i will say its also the thing thats probably going to unfortunately limit i think the amount of International Support south sudan receives in what you know should be a massive rebuilding effort and so if the government is serious and wants those funds its going to have to make some steps on reforms and Real Transparency on if its all acting i think significant International Support for rebuilding the country you know i want to briefly give you the last say head because i want to ask you what i think is a critical question hand in this is a real opportunity if the south sudan how optimistic are you that it wasnt to be squandered there is cautious optimism across the board. It is a significant step that a unity government has been formed but we also have to consider this. Constancies in the backdrop under which this government is going to be you know operating you have power in the center. Among you know of a precedent of 1st Vice President and for the Vice President one of what has yet to be appointed so a lot is going to depend on you know relations at the center as well as Security Sector reform. You know one of the key lessons of the collapse of the government in july 2016 is a lack of sustained International Pressure or a local you know into an International Coalition or mechanism. Under which you can ensure that in the case of backtracking or in the case of possible collapse there is reading i know jock and alan have both pointed out why goodwill has been squandered but i think it is an opportunity because this is something we saw in south sudan the International Community will come in full force and then pause take a step back and things go wrong so i think it is very important for south sudanese regional partners. African union egon and also International Partner partners including donors to ensure sustained and constructed pressure where we can see reforms huge huge challenges ahead but clearly a moment for the while to be looking closely at and supporting south sudan will leave it there that thanks to all of our guests thats alan boswell now go out and shop not a jock and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our web site thats al jazeera dot com and for further discussion do go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com for thrash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. And 5 story for meanest on here today and the whole team here and our how i thank you. Thank. The race for the white house has begun. To 04 states have their say they want to face down trying. To add to continue coverage of the casting of the 2025 u. S. In action. On just. Accounting the cost a tale of 2. 00 nations a straight is unrelenting charges you call a germanys plan to get out of Coal Powered Energy plus the unseen polluter we find out what the shipping industry is doing to end soaring emissions. Counting the cost on aljazeera. With the top stories on aljazeera china is disappointing its annual gathering of parliament for the 1st time in decades as it struggles to contain the coronavirus site break it was shed jools take place on march 5th brian is in hong kong and says the congress is the most important political event over the calendar. Drools thousands of delegates from across china its also significantly the moment when chinas premier outlines his economic targets for the year ahead and of course this is happening as a time when chinas economy is continuing to slow and its likely to slow even more because of this fire is now