SPLM-IO inaugurates first headquarters in Juba

JUBA – South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and leader of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) on Saturday oversaw the inauguration of the group’s first general secretariat in Juba.

The group was established in Nasir, Upper Nile state in 2014 following the outbreak of war in Juba where thousands of ethnic Nuer were killed by a militia group the African Union said was allied to President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

Since then, the group has been based in eastern South Sudan’s Upper Nile state and has been in armed conflict with the government until the signing of a revitalized version of a 2015 peace agreement in 2018.

In 2019, while Machar was in Khartoum where talks with the government on pre-transitional activities were ongoing, the SPLM-IO announced that it was moving its headquarters to Juba, but then remained without an office since.

Speaking during the launch of the SPLM-IO Secretariat office in Juba, Machar suggested South Sudan change the name to “People’s Republic of Sudan’ because ‘South’ means direction.

“We must think what name we should be, and I hope you will accept my People’s Republic of Sudan because we are unable to move away from it, it is our name and when you say South, South is a direction, is not a name,” Machar said.

Machar said debates to rename the country should kickoff as soon as possible.

“So the struggle of the name is still there. We will debate it, what is it that we want to call ourselves and sometimes I would suggest and some of my friends say let’s call ourselves the People’s Republic of Sudan. What will they think of us there? If we say we are the People’s Republic of Sudan, will they say we are communists?” he said.

“There is a struggle over name even our country have we named it real? It is called “South Sudan” and our brothers said ok, if you want to be independent, you have voted for being independent, we will cut you from Sudan and named ourselves Sudan and they named their country Sudan,” he added.