Opposition commanders gather at Magenis to discuss ‘new SPLA-IO leadership’ – sources  

JUBA – Top opposition commanders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/SPLA-IO) are meeting at the border town of Magenis reportedly to discuss possible changes within the main armed opposition group, sources at the secret meeting said.

The meeting, according to one opposition source, began on Monday, two days after opposition commander General Johnson Olony Thabo, whose nomination for governor of Upper Nile state was rejected by President Salva Kiir last year, left Kosti in White Nile state for Magenis to attend the meeting on Saturday.

“This is a very important meeting and what is being discussed here is about a new SPLA-IO leadership in light of what we have seen in the last week days and weeks,” the opposition source who is at the meeting and not allowed to speak to the media regarding the meeting told Sudans Post via satellite phone this morning.

Another opposition officer who is also at the meeting said the gathering is being organized by SPLA-IO military chief General Simon Gatwech Dual and General Johnson Olony and said the two have informed all the opposition commanders of the development between them and the SPLM-IO leadership in Juba.

“This meeting when it was started began with informing all the generals about what is going on between the SPLA-IO military headquarters and those in Juba including the appointment of General Simon Gatwech Dual as a presidential advisor to Salva Kiir Mayardit,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The reports about a meeting come days after First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and General Simon Gatwech Dual exchanged barbs after the later turned down an appointment by President Salva Kiir Mayardit as a presidential advisor, saying the position does not exist in the revitalized peace agreement.

Machar responded and removed him as chief of staff of the SPLA-IO forces, but General Gatwech has maintained that he still command the forces and accused Machar of attempting to assassinate him in Magenis.