South Sudan president dissolves parliament as part of peace deal

Activists welcome the move in line with a 2018 peace accord, saying it was long overdue but also expressing distrust.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has dissolved parliament, opening the way for lawmakers from opposing sides of the country’s civil war to be appointed under a 2018 peace accord. Kiir’s decision was announced on public television on Saturday evening but no date was given as to when the new parliament will begin working. The setting up of a new legislative body was part of an accord signed in September 2018 between Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, for years on opposing sides during the five-year civil war that led to 380,000 people’s death and displaced four million.