Kiir and Machar had signed a peace agreement late past year under which Machar was once again made vice president.
Advertisement
Vivian Adebamowo reports that the lingering unrest in South Sudan has assumed several shades, this time vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar has fired a minister suspected by his group of being tapped by the government to replace him.
Gai, was the chief opposition negotiator during the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-mediated peace efforts in Addis Ababa which resulted into the signing of the peace agreement to resolve the conflict in South Sudan. Machar fled Juba this month after Kiir’s forces bombed his house during the clashes that killed hundreds of people.
During the formation of the transitional government in late April, both Kiir and Machar agreed to implement the peace deal, which halted almost two years of a bloody civil which took an ethnic dimension.
The delegation in Juba officially submitted Gai’s name to Kiir’s office at 11 a.m. Monday and expects a response soon, William Ezekiel, a spokesman for the group, said by phone from the city.
The spokesman insisted that Mr. Deng’s appointment would worsen tensions in South Sudan.
Kiir has appealed to Machar to return to Juba and work together towards rebuilding peace, promising to guarantee his rival’s safety. The civil war took on ethnic undertones – anywhere from 50 to 300,000 people were killed, and more than 2 million displaced.
Nyarji Roman, a spokesperson for Machar, called Saturday’s moved a “betrayal” and said that the government and officials who elected Deng were acting illegally. He has been appointed by an opposition faction to stand in for absent Riek Machar as first vice president.
“By this, Taban Deng Gai is dismissed and no more a member of the SPLM/SPLA (IO)”, adds the letter. “He’s an extremely experienced politician with solid contacts in Juba, Khartoum as well as Bentiu and, like many other South Sudanese politicians, has allied with pretty much everybody at some point, just as he has also fought pretty much everybody at some point as well”, says Harry Verhoeven, an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Qatar. This “impacts negatively on the recently formed government, as well as the security of the nation. This is a clear violation of the Compromised Peace Agreement” read the letter.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei said Friday that a coup attempt led to the recent clashes in Juba, but he did not say who was to blame.
