February 17th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny has arrived in the capital Juba for talks with President Salva Kiir over administrative areas and other pending issues, an opposition official said.
“The Chairman and Commander in Chief has arrived in Juba for talks with President Salva on the matter on administrative areas as well as the security arrangements,” an opposition official said on condition of anonymity.
Kiir on Saturday decided to response to an opposition demand to return the country to its original ten states but created three administrative areas which has been criticized by Machar’s SPLM-IO as well as other opposition groups.
Machar accepted the Kiir’s return to ten states but rejected the creation of the 3 administrative areas arguing that it would cause ethnic disagreements due to complications in their boundaries.
The meeting was called upon by the regional bloc, IGAD which mediated the revitalized peace agreement after Machar issued a statement rejecting the creation of three administrative areas.
Kiir and Machar are under intense international pressure to meet the February 22 deadline of unity government formation which the two agreed upon in November last year after several failed attempts to form a unity government.
