July 6th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s prominent opposition and SPLM-IO leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon will meet the country’s former SPLA Chief of General Staff Gen. Paul Malong Awan in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to discuss the ongoing IGAD-led efforts to end the ongoing bloody civil war which has engulfed the nation since December 2013, sources familiar with he initiative by the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Machar will meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi next week with Gen. Paul Malong, the leader of South Sudan United Front. The two will discuss the ongoing peace efforts by the IGAD to end the civil war,” the source told the Nyamilepedia today from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Another source said the initiative was made by the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta which believe that most contentious issues between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar has been fully addressed by the Sudanese President Field Marshal Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir who tabled a draft peace plan for the negotiating South Sudanese parties in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Thursday.
“The initiative was made by the Kenyan President, H.E Uhuru Kenyatta because he believe that most of the contentious issues President Kiir and Riek had been addressed by the Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, so he believe that there is need for other South Sudanese leaders to reconcile and have their say in the ongoing efforts to restore peace in the young African nation,” he told the Nyamilepedia on the cover of anonymity.
Gen. Malong fall out with the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, his long time friend, in May 2017 after the later dismissed him from then top army position. Malong left Juba for Yirol heading to his home town Aweil in protest of dismissal by the President. He was stopped at Yirol and forcefully returned to Juba where he remain under house arrest until his release in November 2017 following talks brokered by the Jieng Council of Elders who convinced Kiir to release him on humanitarian grounds.
In March this year, Malong decided to formed an armed opposition rebel group known as South Sudan United Front (SSUF) accusing President Salva Kiir of looting the country to bankruptcy.
