Senior officials in the South Sudanese government are unclear about whether they are prepared to received the SPLM-IO delegation visiting Juba this month including where they will be hosted and how many are expected.
Last week in Addis Ababa, both sides announced that SPLM-IO and SPLM-G10 advance teams will visit Juba mid-November per the terms of a new deal on security arrangements.
The SPLM-IO has announced that they will send to Juba as many as 500 delegates as part of peace implementation.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek said that there were no special preparations to receive the SPLM-IO delegates going to Juba.
“The reception for the SPLM IO delegations will be the normal reception and now there are no preparations going in Juba nowadays,” Ateny said.
Ateny also said there was not yet a scheduled time for reception of the delegates.
Mawien Makol, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman further confirmed that they expect the SPLM-IO delegation to arrive in Juba soon but they are still not sure about the number of delegates coming.
“No, I don’t know exactly what will be the total number of delegates that will come to Juba from SPLM-IO,” he said.
Contacted by Radio Tamazuj, the spokesman declined to elaborate further on preparations for the visit by the SPLM-IO advance team, saying he was busy.
Separately, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth was quoted by Eye Radio as saying that the SPLM-IO did not yet confirm the date of their arrival nor how many of them would come.