The chief mediator in Ugandan peace talks said rebel leader Joseph Kony is set to sign a final peace agreement.
United Nations mediator Joachim Chissano told reporters Wednesday that he spoke to Kony and that Kony said he would sign the deal on Saturday.
Chissano said the signing will take place at Ri-Kwangba, on the border between southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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| Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), answers journalists' questions in Ri-Kwamba, southern Sudan (2006 file photo) |
Kony has failed to show up for signing ceremonies in the past but Chissano and fellow mediator Riek Machar said indications this time are good.
The peace deal would end the 20-year insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army against Uganda's government. Kony and at least two of his aides are wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court.
The LRA is notorious for killing, kidnapping, and mutilating civilians. At one time, fighting and violence displaced some two million people in northern Uganda.
Fighting there has died down since a 2006 cease-fire, but the LRA has evolved into a regional threat, setting up bases and kidnapping civilians in eastern Congo, southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.