SPLM-IO says advance team may not arrive in Juba in few days as planned

December 5, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – In a situation which seems to further delay the arrival to Juba of advance team of hundreds of members of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO), officials of the opposition said the first group of the team may only travel towards the end of next week.

Official spokesman of the SPLM-IO leadership said arrangements for the team’s travel to Juba had not been completed by the IGAD Plus mediation and the United Nations or donor countries.

“Although over 550 members of the advance team are ready per the list we have submitted for facilitation, logistical arrangements are not complete in order to transport them to Juba,” James Gatdet Dak, spokesperson of the leadership told Sudan Tribune on Saturday.

“We have learnt from IGAD that the process may take several more days before the first group of the advance team can travel to Juba,” he said.

He also said given the current circumstances facing the facilitation of the team’s arrival, the whole team of over 550 may not arrive to Juba on the same day or same week but will have to split into groups to travel on different dates.

The advance team would officially kick off the implementation of the August peace agreement, on the ground, between president Salva Kiir’s government and the armed opposition led by first vice-president designate, Riek Machar.

Some members of the team would station in the national capital, Juba, while the rest would spread out to the 21 proposed federal states of the SPLM-IO in order to disseminate the peace agreement, mobilize for its full implementation with the grass-roots as well as organize for reception of their top leader when he returns to Juba.

Machar, who will become a powerful first vice president in accordance with the peace agreement, is expected to return to the capital after two years by the end of December, 2015 or in early January 2016, depending on how fast the preliminary arrangements have been made in order form a transitional government of national unity with president Kiir.

IGAD mediation and its international partners or donors are responsible for the necessary logistics in ensuring that the advance team arrives in Juba in time.

The opposition leader’s spokesman, however said his leadership has been in contact with the IGAD chairman and Ethiopian Prime Minister, Haile Mariam Desalegn, as well as with the IGAD mediation on the matter.

The implementation of the peace agreement has run behind the schedule due to delays in the implementation of some of the initial stages provided for in the agreement.

(ST)