South Sudan’s government has refused to sign a peace deal with the rebels in the country despite the threat of international sanctions.

President Salva Kiir left a session of African Union (AU)-mediated peace talks in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Monday, without signing a peace deal that had been put on the negotiating table, saying a “peace that cannot be sustained cannot be signed.”

He made no comments afterwards.

Rebel leader Riek Machar, however, signed the deal, and urged Kiir to reconsider his decision.

“It was an opportunity for us to end the war,” Machar said.

The secretary-general of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, Pagan Amum, also signed the deal, but mediators said he was not representing the government.

Other rebels beg to differ

The South Sudanese president had warned from the start of the peace talks that it would not be possible to sign a credible peace deal amid a rift among rebel forces.

Powerful rebel general Peter Gadet and other key commanders last week accused Machar of seeking power, and said they would not recognize any deal.

The international community had threatened possible sanctions if a deal was not reached by the end of Monday. It is not immediately clear if any sanctions would not be considered for imposition.

Playing hard to get?

Chief mediator Seyoum Mesfin, while acknowledging that progress had been made, said, “The signing ceremony is not complete without the signing of the government.”

The government has “certain reservations” and will return after consultations, Mesfin said.

“In the next 15 days, the president will come back to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and finalize the peace agreement,” he said.
Rival leaders have been under intense diplomatic pressure to end 20 months of a brutal civil war, in which tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The conflict between the government and rebels erupted in December 2013 after Kiir accused Machar, his sacked deputy, of plotting a coup. Machar denied the allegation, but then formed a rebel army.

The United Nations (UN) says some 2.2 million people have fled their homes due the fighting, while over 70 percent of the country’s 12 million people are in need of relief aid.