Juba, South Sudan
June 19, 2022 —- The head of the SPLM/A (IO) breakaway Kitgwang faction has renewed his calls demanding his advance team in Juba to return to Khartoum, saying the deal they reached with the government in Juba is not holding.
General Simon Gatwich told media that he demands the SPLM/A (IO) Kitgwang faction delegation comprising of 30 people, who have spent five months in Juba, to return to Khartoum because the mediator (Sudan) has failed to heed the signed agreement of the security arrangements in the accord.
The SPLM/A-IO Kit-Gwang signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement with the Juba government in January of this year.
Among other clauses, the agreement stipulated that the outfit’s soldiers would be integrated into the national army, SSPDF, within three months which should have been made according to the matrix.
Last week, the delegations deputy secretary-general for administrative affairs, Sebit Kong Kun, told reporters that since they arrived in Juba five months ago, they have not met any government official or any of the parties that they signed the Khartoum Peace Agreement with.
Gen. Gatwich revealed that his delegation in Juba told him that they had not held any meeting with any of President Salva Kiir’s government officials.
“We want the government of Sudan, because it is the party responsible for the peace agreement between the Kitgwang group and the government in Juba, to return the delegation from Juba to Khartoum because the peace implementation process has failed,” Gen. Gatwich charged. “The government in Juba wants to use the strategy that it implemented against the First Vice President Riek Machar, by detaining him in the capital, Juba, away from his forces.”
“We want our delegation to return to Khartoum in order to hold consultations or to conduct new negotiations with the government in Juba,” he added.
Generals Simon Gatwich and Johnson Olony defected from the SPLM/A-IO mainstream led by First Vice President Riek Machar in April last year after protesting the failure of the peace partners to implement the security arrangements enshrined in the revitalized peace agreement.
