Mixed reactions as South Sudan factions sign deal

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and Opposition leader Machar. AFP PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Lt Gen Wesley Welebe Samson, the deputy chief of staff for training, urged presidents Sisi and Museveni to secure Dr Machar’s release “from illegal detention in South Africa” and allow him to fully participate in Igad high-level revitalisation forum and SPLM reunification meetings.
  • Gen Welebe accuses Kiir of preparing for war and appealed to the two presidents to convince the South Sudanese leader to desist from war and declare a genuine ceasefire focusing on a peaceful resolution of the conflict in South Sudan.

Kampala. The Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) unification deal signed in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Thursday has been received with mixed reaction in Juba.
It was announced Thursday that the warring factions within the ruling political party in South Sudan had signed the deal to end years of military clashes that have pitted president Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Dr Riek Machar.

President Kiir, the head of the SPLM-IG, and his political nemesis, Dr Machar the leader of the SPLM-IO, were not present in Cairo when the deal was signed at the Egyptian Intelligence’s headquarters under the auspices of Egyptian president Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi and President Museveni.

In the deal dubbed; the “Cairo Declaration”, the two factions- the SPLM in government (SPLM-IG) and the SPLM in opposition (SPLM-IO) agreed to end disputes and stipulate the return of all displaced people and refugees to their home regions in the country.
President Museveni has been at the centre of efforts to restore peace in South Sudan through negotiations under the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.

“The Cairo Declaration ... will not bring peace without the release, return and full participation of SPLA/M IO chairman and commander-in-Chief Dr Riek Machar Teny,” Lt Gen Wesley Welebe Samson, deputy chief of staff.
But the two sides have denounced Dr Machar being part of the deal.
Dr Machar remains in exile in South Africa after he fled the country and is supposed to return home as a result of the unification deal.

More than one million Sudanese refugees are currently living in Uganda after they fled different clashes between the soldiers loyal to the SPLM in government and SPLM-IO.
According to the Sudanese Tribune, a local newspaper, the SPLM-IG, has rejected the inclusion of Dr Machar in the Cairo declaration.

Mr Nhial Deng Nhial, the senior presidential adviser and special envoy, said the “new deal does not recognise Dr Machar as leader of the SPLM-IO faction but accept his participation in the Igad-led revitalisation of the peace process.”
Mr Nhial said the deal, recognised the current First vice president, Mr Taban Deng Gai, as the leader of the SPLM-IO, who has accepted the re-unification without conditions.

However, SPLM-IO rejected the Cairo deal.
Lt Gen Wesley Welebe Samson, the deputy chief of staff for training, urged presidents Sisi and Museveni to secure Dr Machar’s release “from illegal detention in South Africa” and allow him to fully participate in Igad high-level revitalisation forum and SPLM reunification meetings.

Gen Welebe accuses Kiir of preparing for war and appealed to the two presidents to convince the South Sudanese leader to desist from war and declare a genuine ceasefire focusing on a peaceful resolution of the conflict in South Sudan.
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