May 9th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan President, Salva Kiir Mayardiit, threatened on Monday accused his arch-rival turned peace peace-partner of recruitment threatening to do the same.
The President made the threats during the launch of the county’s first-ever Civil Registry since its independence from the neighboring Sudan.
Kiir without an evidence accused opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny of carrying out recruitment threatening to go on the same mobilization saying he could do it faster than Machar.
“He (Machar) is now recruiting and this recruitment is prohibited in the agreement and if it is a matter of recruitment,” Kiir said.
“It does not cost me much to also recruit,” he added.
He further said the six-months extended pre-transitional period would not be enough to complete all the pre-transitional activities suggesting an extension that could go beyond one year.
“Instead of six months, let us call for one year, because from May up to November, there will be rain still and you cannot move with a car to any location,” Kiir said in his speech. “We can form the government by April or May.”
Responding to the threat and accusation by the President, the SPLA-IO acting spokesperson, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, denied from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa that the group is recruiting saying an ongoing peace dissemination by the main armed opposition group is wrongly perceived by the government as recruitment.
“Our chief of general staff and his commanders are for peace not war. Peace dissemination is what is being misunderstood as recruitment,” Lam said.
