SPLM-IO calls for Uganda retreat to be conducted in Juba after cancellation

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has urged for the conduct of the Uganda retreat to be conducted in Juba after the main armed opposition group said it was cancelled.

Last week, a senior South Sudan government official told Sudans Post that President Salva Kiir Mayardit does not want First Vice President Machar to travel outside the country and suggested to the African Union and Ugandan President to only allow officials representing Machar to travel.

Yesterday, senior opposition officials said they have been informed by the Ugandan embassy in Juba that the meeting, which would have discussed the stalemate in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement, has been cancelled until further notice.

In a statement this morning, SPLM-IO member of the National Liberation Council (NLC) and close ally of First Vice President Machar, Dut Majokdit, said Juba should be an alternative for the peace meeting arguing that all signatories, including the guarantors, were all in Juba.

“The postponed peace retreat that was supposed to take place in Uganda should have to take place here in Juba given the fact that, most of the leaders are in Juba. IGAD special Envoy Dr. Ismail Wais and all representatives of the Parties that are signatories to the peace agreement are here in Juba and is the best place to resolve the outstanding issues not Kampala,” he said in the statement extended to Sudans Post.

“The two guarantors, Sudan and Uganda, should come to Juba including the international community and Troika to push the parties to resolve the stalemate against the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement which is in its third year now,” he added.

The senior opposition official further said the “IGAD should organize to bring all the parties together here in Juba to discuss the delays on the Status of the implementation of the peace agreement” because the parties are “left with eleven months to the end of the transitional period and nothing has been implemented in particular the security arrangements.”

He said “the parties must break the deadlocked over the unified command prior to the graduation of the unified forces in the country. I wish all the parties to resolve the outstanding issues in the upcoming meetings here in Juba to graduate the forces that are cantonments.”