June 12th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – A former SPLM-IO Taban chapter in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, announced that they have endorsed the merger their leader in Juba ordered with the ruling faction led by the country’s President, Salva Kiir Mayardiit.
In a press conference held in Cairo’s Abassiya district last month, then Chairman and now a former chairman, Deng Machar Tot, announced the dissolution of all the structures of the chapter and joined the faction under Salva Kiir.
“To all the members of the SPLM in Cairo, regarding the Arusha Reunification Accord, we clearly announces our unequivocal support for the decision taken by our leadership in Juba, Comrade 1st Lt.Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the President of the Republic and Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Comrade Gen. Taban Deng Gai, First Vice-President of the Republic, in uniting the party,” Deng said in the press conference.
Deng said the decision taken by the two senior SPLM members to re-unite the party will revive the party’s glory although most important party figures crucial for the party reunification, Riek Machar, and pagan Amum, the First Deputy Chairman and the Secretary General respectively, were excluded by the reunification.
The SPLM fractured in December 2013 after a national convention in the capital Juba turned violence leading to defection and arrest of senior party members.
A civil war that followed forced Kiir to sign a peace agreement in August 2015 followed by the SPLM Arusha Reunification Accord in Arusha Tanzania that year.
The reunification agreement provides for the return of Riek Machar who is now leading a powerful faction of the party known as the SPLM-IO.
In 2016, the peace agreement collapsed after clashes in the presidential palace forcing Machar, once again, to the Bush.
Taban, with some of the SPLM-IO members and ministers who remained behind said they dismissed Machar and Taban was appointed in few days to replace Machar as the First Vice-President and the Chairman of the SPLM-IO after having been dismissed by Machar shortly before his appointment.
In early May 2018, Taban announced the dissolution of his faction and joined the ruling faction saying it was in line with the Arusha document although most important signatories to the accord were not presence.
