Kiir, regional diplomats discuss SPLA-IO factional crisis

JUBA – South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has met a delegation of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which mediated the revitalized peace agreement and discussing the unfolding situation in the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar.

In a statement, the presidency said the IGAD delegation was led by the regional bloc’s executive secretary Workneh Gebeyehu who was accompanied to the presidency by the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais, and said the two sides discussed ways to contain the SPLA-IO crisis.

“His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit met with the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Dr Workneh Gebeyehu and discussed the internal crisis within the SPLM-IO and regional matters. Accompanying Dr Workneh Gebeyehu was Amb. Dr. Ismail Wais, the IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan,” the presidency said in a statement.

The statement seen by Sudans Post said the meeting was also attended, on South Sudan’s side, by President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s security advisor Tut Gatluak and minister of presidential affairs Barnaba Marial Benjamin as well as the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation Beatrice Khamisa Wani.

In statements to the media, the visiting IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh “commended the Unity Government for the progress made towards the ongoing implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement.”

The statement further quoted Workneh as saying that the “meeting with H.E President Salva Kiir also focused on the recent Kitgwang Declaration by the breakaway members of the SPLM/A-IO led by General Simon Gatwech Dual and General Johnson Olony and the violent clashes in Magenis, Upper Nile State.”