July 15th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, will not travel to Juba in late July for an expected meeting with President Salva Kiir Mayardiit unless his demands are met, an aide told Nyamilepedia Saturday.
Last week, an opposition official associated with Machar told Nyamilepedia from Khartoum that the main armed opposition leader will travel to Juba in late July to meet President Salva Kiir following a formal request from the South Sudanese head of state asking him to return to Juba for a meeting aimed at discussing formation of a unity government.
Speaking to Nyamilepedia on Saturday, senior member of the SPLM-IO Manasseh Zindo said Machar will not return to Juba if demands set forth as precondition by him are not met.
He said the exiled opposition leader had only responded to the letter from Kiir expressing his readiness to meet him but based on the given conditions.
“No, Dr. Riek is not traveling to Juba by the end of this month. He only responded to an invitation extended to him for a face to face talk with President Salva. He is willing to travel to Juba, however, he gave conditions under which he can travel to Juba,” Zindo said.
What are Machar’s demands?
Machar is currently under house arrest in Khartoum and he has been under that status since May last year following his return to Sudan from South African’s Pretoria where has been under the same condition since late 2016.
In a letter dated 8 July 2019, Machar submitted many demands to the president among which is that he must be allowed to travel freely to countries under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional grouping which mediated the revitalized peace deal.
Machar also demanded in the letter that President Kiir to make a request to Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) to transport him from and back to Khartoum for their face-to-face meeting in Juba.
