The First Vice President Dr Riek Machar has written to IGAD to stop the ‘deteriorating’ political situation in the country.
In a letter addressed to the leader of the Sudan Sovereign Council, Lt Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Dr Machar called for an immediate intervention to neutralise political tension.
“I am writing to Your Excellency as a Chair of IGAD to bring to your attention the deteriorating situation in South Sudan,” Dr Machar wrote, adding: “Attached is SPLM/SPLA (IO) proposal to arrest the situation.”
“Accept, Your Excellency, the assurance of my best regards and highest consideration,” Dr Machar pleaded with al-Burhan in the letter dated March 26, 2022.
Dr. Machar’s request came a day following what he described as President Salva Kiir’s ‘‘unilateral decision’’ on the unified command, rejecting positions allocated to opposition groups that, according to them, failed to meet the agreed 50:50 per cent forces’ contributing ratio.
Speaking to The City Review on Sunday, Dr Machar’s Press Secretary, who also serves as the Director for Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, said IGAD’s intervention in the matter was crucial to ensure positive progress on the implementation of Chapter Two of the agreement.
It remains unclear whether President Kiir’s Friday Presidential Order was based on the latest armed command structure, which was presented by Lt Gen. Al-Burhan during his recent visit after consulting with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni.
Both parties have continued to maintain parallel positions on how they think the matter could be resolved. While opposition groups demand an equal share with the government, President Kiir’s SPLM-IG wants a 60:40 ratio. The stalemate is frustrating regional efforts to resolve the disagreement.
According to CEPO Executive Director, Edmund Yakani, the contention has instilled fear among the people, who are now fearing that the brewing differences could spiral into a replay of the 2016 bloody fallout.
“So, as a civil society activist, I would like to take this opportunity to call upon the leaders of the country to act urgently because the country is not in a good mood. The country is in a mood [resembling] the beginning of 2016, after an incident that started with similar issues that took the country to serious violence.
“I have witnessed just from today (yesterday) all over the country with the phone calls that we received from several people across the nation. “This tells us that people are living in fear,” Yakani told The City Review last week.