November 29th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The regional bloc, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has failed on the much expected deliberation on the status of SPLM-IO chairman Dr. Riek Machar during today’s summit of the heads of state and government, a spokesman for the main armed opposition group said.
Puok Both Baluang, the SPLM-IO director of information and public relations, told the Nyamilepedia from the Sudanese capital Khartoum this evening that the regional bloc instead referred the deliberation on Machar’s status to the new IGAD chairperson Dr. Abdalla Hamdok.
“The IGAD has failed to table the issue of Dr. Riek Machar status,” he said from Khartoum “They have referred it to the new IGAD chairperson who is also the Sudanese Prime Minister Dr. Abdalla Hamdok.”
Machar has been under what the SPLM-IO describes as “illegal” detention since 2016 following the collapse of a 2015 peace agreement. Machar’s guards and a heavily armed force belonging to President Salva Kiir fought in Juba at South Sudan’s presidency leaving hundreds dead.
He has since been put under house arrest in South African and then transferred to Khartoum in May last year as peace talks culminating to what is now the Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) started.
