More SPLM-IO advance team members arrive in Juba on New Year eve

December 31, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – Leadership of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by former vice-president, Riek Machar, announced the arrival of the second group of their advance team to the national capital, Juba, in implementation of the peace deal.

Machar’s press secretary, James Gatdet Dak, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday that 77 officials of the armed opposition faction left Pagak, their headquarters, for Juba, national capital, through Ethiopia’s border town of Gambella and arrived in the evening in Juba.

“Yes, 77 SPLM (IO) officials from the group two of 150 arrived in Juba on Thursday,” he said.

He added that the rest of over 400 will travel to the nation’s capital and proceed to states in the week after the New Year holiday.

Dak said the leadership of the SPLM-IO and its entire membership are committed to the full implementation of the peace agreement in letter and spirit and wished the people of South Sudan a peaceful and stable nation in the year 2016.

The recent creation of 28 states and appointment of their governors by president Salva Kiir in violation of the peace agreement, he said, will not be allowed to derail the implementation of the peace deal and prolong the suffering of the people, adding that the opposition does not recognize them and will implement the peace deal as it was signed.

He said the matter will be tackled in the next meeting of the parties in the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), a body established to oversee and monitor the implementation of the peace agreement under the chairmanship of former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae.

The opposition leader’s spokesman called on the people of South Sudan to defend the peace agreement and speak out by pointing to any violations and putting pressure on the government to reverse any action which would ruin the implementation of the agreement and return the nation to war.

(ST)