Machar to name deputy today

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny will this afternoon select a deputy for the SPLM-IO chairman, three months after Henry Odwar, then Machar’s deputy, decided to desert to join General Simon Gatwech Dual.

Odwar who was also the minister of mining in the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) resigned from his position as a minister and then launched attack on Machar, accusing him of surrendering to the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit at the expense of thousands of opposition forces in cantonment sites.

Days later, he was appointed by General Simon Gatwech Dual, the chairman of the holdout Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Kitgwang faction, as the chairman of the group’s political wing, but disagreements emerges as General Olony, an important factor in the Kitgwang faction, refuse to welcome him and other politicians.

Yesterday, President Salva Kiir Mayardit named Gen. Martin Abucha, the executive director in the office of the First Vice President and representative of the SPLM-IO in the peace monitoring CTSAMVM. Now, Machar’s deputy said the ongoing SPLM-IO meeting in Juba will result in the selection of deputy for Machar, among others.

“The meeting is the 4th SPLM/A-IO Liberation Council. It aims at completing the National Liberation Council, especially the vacant positions within the National Liberation Council of SPLM-IO,” he said, according to the Juba-based City Review.

“All the members who have defected, including others who have lost their lives, will be filled tomorrow (today),” he added.