SPLM-IO says ‘attempt’ by Kiir’s party to remove Machar from SPLM could derail peace deal

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has said “attempt” to remove its leader First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny from the SPLM party by President Salva Kiir’s faction could derail the spirit of cooperation between the parties and affect the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Friday afternoon, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM National Liberation Council and Chairperson of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) for Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, said that none of the members of the SPLM party has been removed because a faction such as the SPLM-IG cannot remove anyone solely.

“There is nothing called removal and no body is being removed from the SPLM and no body has been removed from the SPLM,” he told Sudans Post during an interview conducted with the senior SPLM-IO official who is currently in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

“The SPLM as a historical party is composed of three factions and based on the convention of 2008, President Salva Kiir is the chairman of the SPLM, Dr. Riek Machar is the deputy chairman of the party and Gen. Pagan Amum is the secretary general,” he added.

The close Machar allies further said that the Arusha Reunification Accord of the SPLM party cannot be implement now because the parties are busy with the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement which they signed in 2018 and said that the decision by President Kiir’s part undermine the peace process.

“This one actually is undermining the two agreements. It is undermining the Arusha Reunification Accords signed in 2015 and it is also a violation of the current peace agreement we are implementing because we cannot implement the Arusha Agreement before we implement the revitalized peace agreement,” he added.