South Sudan rejects talking to unorganised opposition

October 21, 2017 (JUBA)- South Sudanese government has rejected talking to individual opposition groups, asking the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to talk to the armed and non-armed opposition groups to organise and unite their ranks under one body.

“We will not be in a position to sit with each of them. So we requested the IGAD ministerial committee to unite their ranks so that they come out with one body, after all even though they appear to be having different objectives, they are saying one and the same thing”, stated the information minister Michael Makuei Lueth after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

Minister Lueth said the government through the council of ministers accepted the revitalisation of the peace agreement and accepted a declaration of the ceasefire to allow negotiations with what he called “armed strange groups” to end hostilities.

This decision of the government came up during the regular council of ministers meeting in Juba, chaired by President Salva Kiir.

The Cabinet, according to the government spokesman, listened to an evaluation report on the implementation of the agreement to resolve the conflict in South Sudan, presented by Martin Elia Lomuro, cabinet affairs minister.

The outcome of the meeting, he said, resolved that the government will not accept to hold separate negotiations with separate groups, and would rather prefer to negotiate with a united opposition group.

(ST)