The Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), which is overseeing implementation of South Sudan’s peace deal, said first vice president designate and opposition leader Riek Machar will return to Juba on 12 April and form a transitional government with President Salva Kiir.
In a timetable released on Monday and seen by Radio Tamazuj, JMEC said Machar will immediately meet with President Kiir to expand and inaugurate the Transitional National Legislative Assembly on 13 April.
According the oversight body a meeting of the transitional cabinet will be convened on 15 April fallowed by a meeting of the new cabinet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on how to finance the new government and rescue the country’s collapsing economy.
For his part, Ramadan Hassan Baku, the deputy head of the SPLM-IO advance team in Juba, told Radio Tamazuj that the armed opposition leadership does not object to the return of Riek Machar to Juba according to the timetable prepared by JMEC if all arrangements are in place.
He noted that they were expecting their leader to arrive in Juba on 17 April, “So there is no objection if JMEC has completed all the arrangements,” said Baku.
“Riek said he doesn’t want to leave anyone behind, he wants them to come first. So if JMEC is ready to bring them, then there is no problem,” he added.