IGAD dispatches investigators to Magenis to probe hidden hands behind SPLA-IO split

JUBA – The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which mediated the revitalized peace agreement in 2018 has formed a team set to be dispatched to Magenis, the headquarters of the SPLM-IO faction led by General Simon Gatwech Dual, to investigate the ongoing split within the main armed opposition group, a regional envoy has said.

General Simon Gatwech Dual who was then the SPLA-IO chief of staff attempted in August to remove First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny as chairman and commander in chief of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/SPLA-IO) claiming that the prominent opposition leader had surrendered to the government of President Salva Kiir.

Machar and his allies immediately dismissed Gen. Gatwech’s attempt, popularly known as Kitgwang Declaration, as a work of peace spoilers such as the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit which it had accused of undermining the implementation of the security arrangements provided for in the 2018 peace agreement.

Gen. Gatwech denied involvement of President Kiir’s government in the SPLM-IO internal dispute, but a leaked phone call from one of General Simon Gatwech’s aides increased the speculation that the head of South Sudan National Security Service (NSS) General Akol Koor is behind the SPLM-IO infighting.

Speaking to the Juba-based UN Radio Miraya, IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais, revealed that the regional body resolved during the previous meeting of the IGAD Council of Ministers to send a fact-finding mission to Magenis and Kitgwang where Gen. Gatwech’s forces are based.

“During the last (IGAD) council of ministers meeting, the question was to send a fact-finding mission to Kitgwang and to Magenis area. Now we have all the clearance from the government of Sudan and as well as the Republic of South Sudan that in the next few days or weeks, we will be able to send a delegation to Magenis or that area to find out what really happened on the ground,” he said on Monday.

Wais further added that the team will include all security mechanism provided for in the revitalized peace agreement as well as peace-monitoring institutions such as the Ceasefire, Transitional Security Arrangements, Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) and the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC)

“The composition will include the IGAD, the security mechanisms as well appointed by one of the two guarantors of the peace agreement from Sudan and from Uganda and the CTSAMVM and JMEC will be there, so it is all IGAD structure which is going there,” the regional envoy further added.