January 17th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by first vice president designate Dr. Riek Machar Teny has said that disagreement over the number and boundaries of states will affect the formation of the unity government.
This come after the South African Vice President David Mabuza said the parties will resolve the issue through arbitration which will take 90 days.
Speaking to journalists during a press conference held in Juba this afternoon, SPLM-IO chairperson of national committee for security and defense Angelina Teny said the long-awaited unity government cannot be formed without the number and boundaries of states determined.
“To us they are automatically proposing an extension of the pre-transitional period, we felt that we want to make that very clear so that we are not misunderstood,” she said.
“The legislature cannot be formed without having addressed the issue of the number of states, so this is one clarification we wanted to make,” she added.
Teny further expressed concerns that government troops were not reporting to training centres which has been expressed by the British ambassador to South Sudan this morning adding that critical tasks of the pre-transitional period were still pending.
“The JMMC [Joint Military Ceasefire Commission]Â has started transporting forces mostly from cantonment sites, and mostly opposition forces are reporting to the training centres. Some government forces are turning up but the process is slow,” she said.
