Top Kiir ally says Joint Defense Board ‘politicized’

JUBA – A South Sudan lawmaker allied to President Salva Kiir Mayardit has said that Joint Defense Board (JDB) created by the revitalized peace agreement has been politicized and blamed the security mechanism and Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) for the withdrawal of SPLM-IO from security mechanisms.

In a statement, General Salva Mathok Gengdit, a lawmaker representing the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IG) said the decision by the SPLM-IO to withdraw from the security mechanisms overseeing the implementation of the security arrangements if a failure of the R-JMEC and the JDB which he said has been politicized.

“This is a failure of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC) and The Joint Defence Board (JDB). The JDB allowed itself to be politicized and influenced by the politicians. Based on my knowledge, security does not go with rumours, flattering and assumptions about politics,” Mathok said

The senior SPLM-IO member who was also the deputy minister of interior following South Sudan’s independence further said the SPLM-IO withdrawal form security mechanisms  “is alarming” and “can lead to another war and this country does not deserve another confusion or unnecessary war.”

He questioned as to why the presidency “is keeping silent and not to intervene and things are falling apart in the country?”

“Yes, I quite agree with what H.E President Salva Kiir Mayardit said in his Press Statement on 28/03/2022 that, he will not take people back to war. But, the security situation in the country is provoked by a situation of fear of the unknown. As I speak, the citizens are now scared, some are even leaving the country with their children amidst fear of the unknown due to disinformation.”