May 28th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – Representatives belonging to a little-known opposition group calling itself South Sudan United Front (SSUF) arrived on Monday in the capital Juba as part of a delegation lead by their chairman Mr. Lino Ajang Ajang saying they have joined the government of president Salva Kiir Mayardiit for the sake of peace, the Presidential Press Unit announced on Monday.
According to the deputy Presidential spokesperson in a statement posted on the social media page of Presidential Press Unit (PPU), the group agreed with the government, among other demands, over the release of detainees.
“South Sudan United Front’s Lino Ajang Ajang faction members arrived Juba on Monday to join the government in the search for peace in the Republic of South Sudan,” the statement said.
The deputy Presidential Press Secretary Paul Ongee said in the statement that the little-known opposition group asked for power sharing governments in the South Sudanese states of Lol, Aweil and Gok state and that they should be given ministerial portfolios.
Lino Ajang Ajang who led the team said, is the chairman of the group and unclear why a leader of an opposition group would travel to Juba without a delegation sent ahead of his arrival.
The government said it reached a deal with the group on 21st May 2018, something which is typically questionable why a government would negotiate with a rebel group without the knowledge of the public.
The group’s different from the one under the leadership of the country’s former SPLA chief of staff Gen. Paul Malong Awan.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
A peace agreement signed in August 2015 by President Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and negotiated under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) in presence of Troika and other international observers collapsed in July 2016 following fighting at the presidential palace in Juba “J1” reportedly after President Kiir ordered a failed attempt to arrest the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar.
A peace revitalization process ended without a formal agreement between warring parties last week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa after the regional mediated presented a peace proposal that seek to share power between different warring parties.
