Machar says he is ready to negotiate with rival Kiir

South Sudan's exiled opposition leader, Riek Machar, said he was ready to meet with rival President Salva Kiir to discuss peace if certain conditions relating to his freedom were met.

In a letter sent Friday to AFP's security advisor, Mr. Machar presented a series of demands before the two men could sit face to face with Juba.

South Sudan entered the war in 2013, just two years after gaining independence, when Kiir accused his former MP Machar of planning a coup d'etat.

But rivals reached a peace deal in September and agreed to set up a union government.

This power-sharing agreement was to come into effect in May but was postponed until November and the process is stalled.

Machar said he was ready to sit down with Kiir to discuss the way forward if some badurances were given.

"I think the time has come to evaluate the process because two months of long time have pbaded without substantial progress," Machar wrote.

Among the demands, Machar said that he should be allowed to travel freely in countries under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional group.

He currently resides in Sudan but can not travel to other countries of IGAD – South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Machar also said that the conditions of his house arrest should be lifted.

He escaped into exile in 2016 following the signing of a peace agreement the previous year, which caused a deadly violence.

The civil war in southern Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly four million and left the economy of this oil-rich country in shambles.