The scheduled meeting between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar in neighboring Uganda has been postponed until further notice, a senior official has said.

The Director for Information and Public Relations, who also serves as the Acting Press Secretary in the office Dr. Machar, Puok Both Baluang said they have received the suspension notification from Uganda Embassy.

“We have been notified by the Ugandan Embassy here that the retreat has been postponed until further notice pending further consultations with the leadership of the country and granters,” Baluang said.

Speaking to The City Review on Wednesday evening, Baluang said, the SPLM-IO will patiently wait for the next schedule for the leaders to meet and discuss the implementation of the peace agreement.

“They are the ones  who invited us as the granters based on their powers and now the ones that now postponing the meeting to a date that will be communicated to us, we will wait for the next date that will be fixed,” he said.

The two principals were supposed to meet on Wednesday in Entebbe, Uganda to discuss and come up with solutions to challenges facing the security arrangements and the prospects for elections slated for 2023.

Earlier, Baluang said they were eagerly waiting for the date to be communicated so that the discussions would take place in the presence of IGAD, the Troika, and the government of Uganda.

 “The discussion [was] supposed to take place in the second week of this month but due to some reasons from the country, it has been impossible. But we are still going to see if the two leaders will go or not,” Baluang said.

The two leaders were expected to agree on the forces’ contribution ratio and harmonization of the ranks hindering the implementation of the security arrangement provisions.

No specific reasons were given for the cancellation of the highly-anticipated retreat.