Kiir Urges Deadline for Ugandan Rebels to Sign Deal

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has asked for the designation of a definite deadline within which Uganda’s rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA) will sign a peace agreement to ends its 21 year insurgency. Addressing his semi-autonomous region’s parliament in Juba, Kiir said the LRA’s cross-border activities still posed a serious security threat to resident’s of Sudan’s Western and Eastern Equatoria states. LRA leader Joseph Kony is said to have dismissed Kiir’s assertions, warning that his rebel group would retaliate in case of any armed attack by Uganda or Sudan. Kony refused to ink a peace deal in April this year, despite having completed two years of successful negotiations with the government. He however said he was still readying himself to sign a final agreement with Kampala.[PE]