Machar reportedly told to stay in Juba until February

JUBA – Opposition leader Riek Machar has been reportedly told to stay in Juba by the IGAD until February which is a deadline the revitalized transitional government is expected to be formed.

Machar returned to Juba last week for talks with President Salva Kiir on issues which are still pending but are crucial in the formation of the transitional government of national unity.

The opposition leader signed a revitalized peace agreement with Kiir in 2018 to end the war. The agreement provided that a number of issues be resolved before the two men form the unity government.

Speaking to this website’s Juba correspondent on Saturday morning, an opposition official said Machar has been told to remain in Juba by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) until February.

“The chairman has been told to remain in Juba by the IGAD until February,” the official who don’t want to be named told Sudans Post.

Kiir and Machar are expected to form the government by February 22 along with other opposition groups who are also signatories to the revitalized peace agreement.

It is not clear why Machar who is hesitance to permanently return to Juba is told to remain there, but the opposition official said the IGAD “made it clear that the outstanding issues need his full-time presence in Juba.”

South African Vice President Mabuza to return to Juba

South African vice president David Mabuza is returning to the South Sudanese capital to try – for the third time – to mediate between the parties on the issue of the number of states and their boundaries.

The parties are in a disagreement over how many states can be in the world’s youngest nation during the transitional period in which Kiir remain as president and Machar deputize as the first vice president – a position he had until the collapse of the 2015 peace agreement in 2016.

Last week, the regional bloc, IGAD, asked Mabuza to return to Juba to resolve the issue after week-long meetings failed to bring the parties to a consensus.

He had proposed that the matter be resolved through arbitration.

SPLM-IO, South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) were the only signatories of the agreement to reject the proposal but later this week the government joined the list saying they didn’t endorsed the South African proposal.

A February deadline is believed by many skeptics to be yet again missed after two deadlines passed without any action from the parties on the transitional government formation.

The government would have been formed in May 2019, but pending issues such as the formation of the national army and the issue of the number of states have hampered the action.