January 8, 2015-The Sudan Tribune reports that IGAD will hold a heads of state consultative meeting on South Sudan. Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Tedros Adhanom said that the summit will take place on January 18th and he has personally invited South Sudan President Salva Kiir.

Dr. Tedros is quoted as saying, “I had a very fruitful discussion with his Excellency President Salva Kiir. We had two issues: one is the upcoming IGAD summit in Addis Ababa on January 18, which he will be attending. The other issue which we discussed was the progress of the peace talks and also for the upcoming IGAD summit.”

The Ethiopian Foreign Minister expressed his hope that the current deadlock will be broken.

According to the Tribune, China and IGAD are also organizing a separate conference to be hosted by the Sudanese government in Khartoum.

Both the Juba government and the Khartoum government have accused each other of arming and supporting opposition movements.

Although this is probably the last chance to break the deadline before imposing punitive economic sanctions on both of the warring parties, many are skeptical that the upcoming talks will result in peace.