Machar to visit forces after IGAD release – spokesman

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader and the country’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny is set to visit his forces following his last month’s release from house arrest by the regional bloc, IGAD, but will wait for now until the formation of states and local governments is completed, according to an opposition spokesman.

Late last year, the SPLA-IO Chief of General Staff, General Simon Gatwech Dual, said in a letter to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development that there was need for Machar to visit his forces so that he can brief them on the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

In December, the IGAD said in a communiqué that its Assembly of Heads of State and Government “underscored that currently there are no travel restrictions of any kind imposed by IGAD on the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, Dr Riek Machar Teny.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sudans Post on Saturday, the SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, said General Dual’s call for Machar to visit forces is currently on Machar’s table and will be executed once the states and local governments are formed.

“That request is one of agendas on the table of Dr. Riek Machar because these forces of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) are revolutionaries that fought for reforms in teh country and they deserve to know the process of the implementation of the agreement like any other South Sudanese citizen. And these was included in the agreement as dissemination of the agreement to the people so that they can understand how it is being implemented,” Baluang said.

“The Chairman Dr. Riek Machar is doing consultation with our members as SPLM-IO regarding the formation of the remaining structures of the government such as the states government and the local government and also the revitalized national parliament. Once these consultations are done, he will visit our forces and will embark on dissemination of the peace agreement to the people of South Sudan,” the senior opposition official added.