February 24th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The ongoing reunification of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) manned by the government in Juba means a return, without any reform agenda, to the status quo, the main armed opposition said on Friday.
On Wednesday, three factions of the ruling SPLM party announced in the capital Juba that they have reunified ranks based on the SPLM reunification accord signed in January in Tanzania.
The three groups includes the ruling faction led by President Salva Kiir, Former Detainees (FDs) and another group which identify itself as SPLM-IO led by the First Vice President Taban Deng Gai. Machar’s SPLM-IO was left out and then given a one-month ultimatum to return to Juba to take up his position as first deputy chairman of the party.
The opposition SPLM-IO led by the country’s First Vice President designate, Dr. Riek Machar Teny said the is need to exert efforts to bring on board other opposition groups who are not part of the revitalized peace agreement signed in September last year.
“The state failure and the collapse of our economy are now beyond the scope of SPLM reunification, which is an exclusive process. We should instead be thinking of how to expand the agreement in order to bring on board other revolutionary forces in the country who have been left out by the negotiated settlement,” said the statement issued on Friday by the group’s Chairperson of National Committee for Information and Public Relations Mabior Garang de’Mabior.
Garang said in the statement that although the parties have signed an agreement that he believes addresses the state failure and reform agenda, the government is working to undermine the agreement by imposing the SPLM reunification which he said should be voluntary.
“The warring parties have negotiated an agreement which addresses the failure of state, as well as the reforms for which the SPLM leaders gave President Salva Kiir an ultimatum. The fact that the security arrangements have not yet been implemented and people are rushing for SPLM reunification, which is being imposed when it should be voluntary, is a clear indication that the traditional elite are colluding to undermine the reform agenda,” he said.
“There is no reform agenda for the nation contained in the SPLM reunification, only a return to the status quo, which is untenable,” he added.
