Peace deal under threat over ‘continued intimidation’ of SPLM-IO leadership, says Machar ally

JUBA – A senior opposition official belonging to First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) has warned that the revitalized peace agreement is under threat, pointing to what he calls a ‘continued intimidation’ of opposition leaders by security agencies.

Dut Majokdit, a close ally of Machar and a member of the group’s National Liberation Council (NLC) said continued arrest of SPLM-IO has become a real threat to the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement signed by the group with the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) under President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

“The repeatedly arrest of the SPLM (IO) political leaders and senior members in Aweil has become a headache and threat to peace implementation,” Majokdit said following the arrested of SPLM-IO deputy chairperson in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.

Majokdit who is also the chairperson of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state further vowed that the group’s leaders will not vow down to the threat he said are meant to sabotage the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement and urged the parties to graduate the unified forces to protect citizens regardless of their political affiliations.

“We will not and never back down because of this continued intimidation by the state security forces which is something that has become the business for the last two years in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State with the purpose to sabotage and jeopardize the implementation process of the revitalized peace agreement,” said.

“The parties must graduate the unified forces and on 30^th August 2022 as scheduled to meet the extended timeline to safeguard the peace agreement and protect the citizens given the fact that the current security organs in the country are working as the paramilitary forces and are heavily under influence of the political directives and are affiliated to the SPLM in government,” he added.

The senior opposition and government official further said that the SPLM-IO leadership has been working hard with the SPLM-IG government of Western Bahr el Ghazal, but said they have been treated badly and humiliated by the SPLM-IG affiliated security forces making it hard for them to cooperate, something that he said undermine the smooth implementation of the agreement.