December 3rd 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, has welcomed the election of Sudan as the new chair of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the regional bloc which mediated the 2018 peace agreement.
During its 13th ordinary summit of heads of state and government in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the regional body decided to elect Sudan to replace Ethiopia as the chair. The meeting also deferred other issues including the status of the SPLM-IO chairman Dr. Riek Machar to the new IGAD leadership.
“We would like to congratulate Sudan for being elected as the Chair of IGAD, and encourage the IGAD new leadership to play more effective role for ensuring full implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS),” a SPLM-IO statement issued by the group’s information director Pouk Both Baluang said.
The statement further reiterated the SPLM-IO’s “full commitment to the implementation of the (R-ARCSS) in letter and spirit, as the only way to attain peace in South Sudan.”
