Zambian President, Edgar Lungu, has been chosen at the request of the warring parties to boost the on-going regional mediation efforts to end the conflict in the country.

President Lungu, who met the two sides in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, said Zambia is hopeful to see an end to the crisis in South Sudan.

He met President Salva Kiir and the leader of the SPLM-SPLA in Opposition, Dr. Riek Machar separately and discussed solutions to the conflict.

President Lungu urged both sides to work towards a negotiated settlement to the 13-month conflict.

Edgar Chagwa Lungu, 59, has been the President of Zambia since 2015. Under President Michael Sata, Lungu served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Defense.

Following Sata’s death in October 2014, Lungu was adopted as the candidate of Sata’s party, the Patriotic Front, for the January 2015 presidential by-election.

In the election, he narrowly defeated opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema and took office on 25 January 2015.