The six-year-old conflict in South Sudan shows no sign of ending, despite sporadic lulls and some degree of rapprochement among the protagonists.

President Silva Kiir has requested for one year extension before he can implement a peace agreement he seemingly signed of his own volition while his partner in crime, Dr Riek Machar, remains holed up in Khartoum citing fears for his personal security.

This turn of events has once again deflated the optimism that greeted the latest agreement and left mediators at a loss. With recall, however, this blow to the search for peace fits into a well-established pattern.

It has become fashionable for the protagonists to occasionally meet in a foreign capital, make the right noises about the need for peace and sign some document before falling back to the default position of making new demands even before what has been agreed on is implemented.

Needless to say, for the millions in South Sudan who have to live with the threat of violence on a daily basis, promises by the warring factions increasingly sound hollow, especially following their apparent disregard for a most poignant appeal for peace by no less than the Pope.

In kissing Dr Machar and President Kiir’s feet at the Vatican last month, the Pontiff, was not only trying to appeal to whatever remnants of humanity were left in them but also place on their shoulders responsibility for the fate of South Sudan.