De facto SPLM-IO leader to fight ‘beneficiaries of war’ if attacked  

JUBA – South Sudan opposition politician and chairman of the holdout SPLM-IO faction Duer Tut Duer has said that he and his group will have no choice if the parties implementing the revitalized peace agreement in Juba that he described as beneficiaries of war are to attack him.

The opposition leader who was an the SPLM-IO governor of the defunct Sobat state created by SPLM-IO chairman Dr. Riek Machar in 2015 removed Machar in June and installed himself as the leader of the main armed opposition group.

Though there are currently differences between Machar and the SPLA-IO Chief of General Staff, General Simon Gatwech Dual, it remains unclear if there is any power base from within the SPLA-IO military supporting Mr. Duer.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an exclusive interview, Duer said the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, which he helped to negotiate as one of politicians making up the opposition negotiating team of the SPLM-IO, is not going through as planned and because there is no political will from President Kiir and Machar, the main signatories of the agreement, to implement it and said the two men have put it aside.

“In our declaration we mentioned and made it clear that the implementation of peace agreement is not going through because Salva Kiir does not have the political will to implement the Agreement and because Riek Machar went to Juba before the implementation of the security arrangements,” Duer told said from the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

“We can’t talk of the collapse of the Peace Agreement, because the Agreement is already put aside by Riek and Salva. The collapse of the peace agreement is not an issue because we are not sure whether the peace Agreement still exists or not,” the opposition leader who was also a member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council added.

He said he is not for return of the country to the civil war, but said the group will have no option, but to fight if the groups implementing the revitalized peace agreement imposed war on him.

“Our Country is destroyed by the War. For people like us who love the Republic of South Sudan and the People of South Sudan, war is not a good option we are for a peaceful South Sudan, but if imposed on us by the beneficiaries of the war, then we will not have any other option,” he added.