South Sudan rebels accuse IGAD of bias as war continues

[Elisabeth Janaina]

South Sudan rebels accuse IGAD of bias as war continues
File photo: Former first vice president Riek Machar
File photo: Former first vice president Riek Machar

South Sudan’s armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by the former
vice-president Riek Machar has criticised the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD) for what they said was its bias
towards President Kiir in the revitalization of the 2015 peace accord.

Machar is being held in South Africa to prevent him from going back to
his country. The decision was reportedly reached by IGAD countries in
order to keep him away in the hope of preventing fighting in the
world’s youngest nation.

Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, a senior opposition official loyal to Riek
Machar, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday said IGAD’s plan to revitalize
the peace process was biasedly in favour of President Kiir and his
first deputy Taban Deng Gai.

Manawa called on the members of the Troika (the UK, US and Norway) and
the African Union (AU) to initiate a new forum for peace in South
Sudan.

In July this year, Ministers of the East African bloc IGAD said that
Machar will not be invited to the next meeting for the revitalization
process.

“We already agreed that the process, all opposition groups including
Riek Machar’s ideas, the representatives of Riek Machar, can be
involved in this process. For the time being, physically we are not
inviting Riek Machar,” Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu
said at the end of the ministers' meeting in Juba.