South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (left) and South Sudan’s rebel commander Riek Machar signed a ceasefire agreement in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Feburary 1. They missed a March 5 deadline to work out the details of an agreement, which was supposed to pave the way for setting up a transitional government. (REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar failed to resolve their differences by the March 5 deadline not only because they lack the political will to do so, but also because the international community lacks the will to make them, says J. Peter Pham, the Atlantic Council’s lead Africa analyst.

Kiir and Machar signed a ceasefire deal in February that was intended to be a step toward a power-sharing agreement.

The two sides faced a March 5 deadline to work out the details of that agreement, which was supposed to pave the way for setting up a transitional government. The deadline passed with no deal.

“The whole agreement was nothing more than kicking the can down the road. Well, we’ve reached the end of the road and now they’re going to try to kick it farther,” Pham, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, said in an interview with the New Atlanticist.

“At the end of the day, there is no political will,” he added.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said the East African group mediating the talks in Addis Ababa will now force both sides to form a transitional government by July 9.

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