SPLM-IO official says Mabior Garang was ‘breaking ice’ for accusing Machar of surrender to Kiir

JUBA – A senior member of South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has said that son of SPLM/SPLA founder John Garang De Mabior, Mabior Garang De Mabior, who returned to South Sudan’s capital Juba over the weekend was ‘breaking ice’ when he accused Machar of surrender to President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government for forming a government without the security arrangements.

Mabior who has been making headlines on social media accusing First Vice President Machar of surrendering to President Salva Kiir’s government at the expense of the implementation of security arrangements returned to South Sudan’s capital Juba on Friday without prior agreement on the implementation of the security arrangements with the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

He met President Salva Kiir Mayardit at the state house J1 following his return to Juba and has reportedly apologized to Kiir for previous statements in which he berated the South Sudanese head of state for being an anti-peace element.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Tuesday evening, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council (NLC), said Mabior Garang De Mabior’s return to Juba is the real surrender to the government because they haven’t signed an agreement with President Salva Kiir Mayardit to guarantee the implementation of the security arrangements apart from the one signed by First Vice President Machar.

“The accusation by the Kitgwang generals, even before Mabior Garang de Mabior, that Dr. Riek Machar and the leadership of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) surrendered to Juba without the security arrangements was unfounded. Their claim that they formed the Kitgwang faction to push for the implementation of the security arrangements was a certain agenda that was engineered by anti-peace elements,” Majokdit said.

“Mabior’s return to Juba is a surrender by itself to the former ITGONU and this is an effective evidence of the fact that there was no reason for initial accusations against the SPLM-IO that signed the peace agreement and made a comprise after forcing the SPLM-IG to reverse the number of states. We are here to implement the peace agreement, not as part and parcel of the ITGONU, but as part of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity provided for in the agreement,” he added.

He said “Mabior’s return to Juba means that what he said in his previous statements was just a breaking of ice and they were statements labeled against the SPLM-IO to stab the movement in the back because his return to Juba is a voluntary return to surrender to the president because he came without a peace agreement and without a single guarantee that he signed.”