“Their own roadmap”: SPLM-IO distances itself from peace roadmap compiled by Kiir’s party

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has distanced itself from a peace roadmap that was presented to President Kiir on Friday saying it is SPLM’s own roadmap and the SPLM-IO has not taken part in developing it.

In a statement on Friday, the presidency said President Salva Kiir Mayardit received a peace “roadmap that will guide the Country towards the end of the Transitional Period and pave way for the Country to conduct a Peaceful and Democratic Elections.”

But the peace roadmap was compiled by a committee formed by President Kiir composed of an all-SPLM-IG team including Kiir’s security advisor and head of National Transitional Committee (NTC), Tut Gatluak, cabinet minister Martin Elia Lomuro and information minister Michael Makuei Lueth.

Speaking to Sudans Post this afternoon, SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, said the roadmap is SPLM-IG’s own and that the main armed opposition group has not participated in anyway in its development.

“The so called roadmap presented to the President by the committee of Hon. Tut Gatluak is their own roadmap as SPLM-IG,” Baluang who is also the Acting Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President said.

“SPLM/A (IO) is not aware of the content of the alleged roadmap nor has taken part in it. We believe the Agreement is a transformative document that can transform the nature and structure of the state,” he added.

The senior opposition official further stressed that the revitalized agreement signed by the two parties in September 2018 “is also a remedy to all problems our country has been suffering from because it addresses the root causes of the conflict.”