S. Sudan First VP urges Security Council to isolate Machar
June 3, 2017 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai has urged the United Nations Security Council to desist from communicating to the country’s armed opposition leader, Riek Machar.
The policy of incitement, he said, continues to displace ordinary citizens from their areas and prolong the suffering of the people.
“Such brutal and sadistic behaviour of Riek Machar must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. He should have not been allowed to use a noble forum such as the UN Security council to preach his outdated and unfounded claims against the president of the republic of South Sudan and the Transitional Government of national Unity,” partly reads the letter to the Security Council.
It further said the engagement of the U.N Security Council with the South Sudanese rebel leader was an “insult” to the lives of innocent people who are victims of barbaric acts of Machar and his group.
Gai, in his letter, urged the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-Plus to desist from engaging with the armed opposition leader.
“He [Machar] is using the blood of Nuer community to attain power and this cannot be tolerated anymore”, further reads the letter.
Machar’s engagement with the world leaders, it adds, frustrates efforts aimed at restoring peace and security in the young nation.
Gai, a former rebel chief negotiator, was hastily appointed the country’s First Vice President after Machar was pushed out of Juba in the aftermath of the violence that erupted in Juba in July last year.
(ST)