October 11th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group SPLM-IO said in a statement on Thursday that three of its members have been arrested by the National Security in Northern Bahr el Ghazal’s Aweil state.
“Yesterday there was crackdown on the SPLM-IO members and supporters in Aweil state,” Deng Nyiwel Dhieu, the minister of information for SPLM-IO’s Aweil state said in a statement extended to Nyamilepedia.
“Two members [of the SPLM-IO], Bol Akuar and Deng Malek, were arrested yesterday by Aweil state security for having identified themselves as SPLM-IO members and this morning, our Comrade Robert Garang Alich was arrested by the same security officers and are detained because they are opposition members,” Dhieu added in the statement.
The opposition official condemned the arrests and said the action by the regime in Juba is a gross violation of the revitalized peace agreement signed between the government and opposition groups last year.
“…. allow me to take this opportunity and privilege to condemn – in the strongest term possible – the crackdown and the subsequent arrest of the SPLM-IO members and supporters in Aweil state,” he said.
“This is a total violation of the revitalized peace agreement by the dictatorial regime of Salva Kiir Mayardit in juba via Aweil state authorities,” he added.
The opposition official further called for the release of the three opposition members which he said are now being detained at Mathiang military base.
“Therefore the SPLM-IO Leadership is calling for the immediate release of these three young men that were taken to Mathiang site military barrack in Aweil Town and being jailed by the State security without legal basis,” he said.
The statement further urged the region and the international communities which it accused of silence on Kiir’s frequent violation of peace to take actions against the region in Juba.
It further reiterated the groups commitment to the revitalized peace agreement the government signed with them in September last year in Addis Ababa.
“The SPLM-IO will continue to pursue peace as well as waging struggle for the best interest of our people to create peaceful society,” he said.
“We reiterate[s] our commitment to the implementation of the R-ARCSS [Revitalized Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan],” he concluded.
