October 14th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group SPLM-IO led by the country’s former First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar welcomed on Monday recent statements by the UK, US in respect to peace in South Sudan.
Last week, the United States warned the government in Juba that it will not accept a government without the main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar.
The same stance was echoed by the British government which urged the government and opposition groups who are parties to the revitalized peace agreement signed in September last year in Addis Ababa to find solution on the number of states .
There is currently a dispute on the number and boundaries of states. The incumbent government wants the unity government be formed and then resolve the dispute on the states. Meanwhile the opposition wants the issue resolved first arguing that it may be a recipe for another outbreak of war.
In a statement issued on Monday, the SPLM-IO welcomed the US and UK statement saying the stance by the two powerful countries will send a message to the government in Juba which it accused of intransigence.
“In this spirit,” the statement signed by the group’s spokesman Mabior Garang de’Mabior partly read “the statements by the US and UK ambassadors, will go a long way in highlighting and curbing the intransigence of a regime which has been flaunting and contravening the Agreement with impunity since we first signed it in 2015.”
