SPLM-IO accuses unnamed ‘detractors’ of working for its downfall

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by the country’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has accused detractors it didn’t identify of working for its downfall while it is ‘single-handedly’ working for success of the revitalized peace agreement it signed with the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit two years ago in Ethiopia.

Dut Majokdit, a senior member of the SPLM-IO said in an interview with Sudans Post on Tuesday that some people have been providing the United Nations and international observers with information which he said were untrue about the main armed opposition group, after a United Nations Panel of Experts report released on Thursday said the SPLM-IO as well as the government had provided arms supplies to civilians in Jonglei ahead of ethnic violence between February and March that left hundreds dead.

“You know the SPLM-IO very well, the people of South Sudan knows and the United Nations Security Council is aware that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in  Opposition is the only signatory to the revitalized peace agreement that is keeping its promises it made during the signing of the agreement in Addis Ababa in 2018 and the only party that is fighting for reforms provided for in the agreement single-handedly and that is working for success of the revitalized peace agreement,” Majokdit told Sudans Post from Juba.

“In the meantime, some detractors are giving unverified reports about the SPLM-IO to the international community and the United Nations. Unfortunately, the UN is comprehending those unfounded reports without verifying it from us first and this really put the credibility of the world body into question, you know,” he added.

The senior opposition official said however that the UN report of government arms supply to ethnic militias in Jonglei is correct, saying the world is aware  that the government has been supplied with weapons from Uganda and other East African countries, but denied any wrongdoing from the SPLM-IO, saying the main armed opposition group is working for peace and does not have a source of funding to manage arms flow to other parties.

“They are right on that part. The government is bringing weapons from Uganda and that is why they are able to give them to the tribal groups of Yau Yau in Jonglei to make sure that the peace agreement collapse because now the government is not for peace as you can see from their attacks in Central Equatoria state,” he said.