![South Sudan First Vice President and SPLM-IO chairman Dr. Riek Machar Teny [Photo via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/gettyimages-1177197686-2048x2048-1.jpg?ssl=1)
Puok Both Baluang, the Director of Information for the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations said in an interview published by Radio Tamazuj last week that the main armed opposition group is still under forced detention and the IGAD has kept dragging its feet on the status of the prominent opposition leader despite many calls by the group to release him.
“The deal was not clear about this issue,” Baluang said of Machar’s current status. “Up to this moment, we have not got any official communication from IGAD that Machar is a free man to move.”
The senior opposition official said since Machar’s return to Juba in February leading to his appointment as First Vice President, the main armed opposition group has been calling on IGAD to release Machar, but IGAD, he said, has been telling them that the region was still working on the matter.
“We are here in Juba as one of the partners to implement the R-ARCSS. We have been asking the IGAD ambassador on this issue but he responds that as IGAD they are still working on the matter,” he said.
“So for us, Machar is the First Vice President but has not been released by the IGAD. So we are still waiting for his release,” he added.
Baluang further reiterated the group’s call for IGAD’s release of Machar saying they are committed to the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement that they signed with the government in Juba in September 2018 in Addis Ababa.
“I am here reiterating our appeal to IGAD to immediately release Machar from his house confinement officially,” he said.
“We wanted to get a document from IGAD showing us that he is no longer a prisoner. The situation of Machar contradicts the provisions of the deal that asks all parties to release political detainees,” he further added.
