Machar ally says Kiir’s party deviating from peace implementation by waging ‘disinformation’ campaign

JUBA – A senior member of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has faulted the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IG) faction for deviating from the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement by launching ‘disinformation and confusion’ campaign.

This comes following a controversy between the two signatories of the revitalized peace agreement in which each is fighting over who is legally the SPLM member and who is not. The SPLM faction under Kiir on Thursday last week met in Juba and decided to remove First Vice President Machar from the party, saying that he has formed his own.

Machar was the first deputy chair prior to the 2013 SPLM split which led to the ongoing civil war. Machar fled Juba and formed the main armed opposition SPLM party. The meeting of the SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC) meeting also dismissed Pagan Amum who was the secretary-general of the party prior to the outbreak of war.

Machar’s group has since refused to accept the removal from the party, saying none of the SPLM factions has the power to remove leaders of the SPLM party of other factions and pointed to the Arusha reunification accord which provided for reunification of the party as the only document to guide the groups through what it would do next.

In a statement, Dut Majokdit, member of SPLM-IO National Liberation Council (NLC) and Chairperson of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) for Northern Bahr el Ghazal state said in a statement that the SPLM has launched a disinformation and confusion campaign to divert attention of the public away from the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“There is a trending misinformation and confusion perpetuated by the SPLM (IG) to divert public attention from the implementation of the (R-ARCSS) and Arusha Agreement that was signed in 2015 in Tanzania after the split of the mother SPLM on the 15th December 2013 in Juba,” he said.

“The historical SPLM has fragmented into three factions namely, SPLM (IO) under FVP Dr. Riek Machar, real SPLM under Gen. Pagan Amum and SPLM (IG) under President Salva Kiir over the vision and Mission to build viable, Peaceful and democratic State in the region but No factions amongst the above-mentioned factions that can claims the ownership of the SPLM to dismissed others.

“The last meeting in Freedom hall was the SPLM ( IG) Political arrangements to put their house in order but the Legitimacy of the SPLM remains with three factions namely SPLM (IG), SPLM (IO) and real SPLM until the implementation of the Peace Agreement and Arusha deal that was signed by President Kiir, Dr Riek Machar and Gen. Pagan Amum to decide the way forward, any business in the middle to undermine the two agreements is the total violation and will not bring the sustainable Peace and Political settlement in the country.”