Dr. Lam Akol was prevented from boarding an airplane traveling from Juba to Addis Ababa on the orders of South Sudan’s presidency, according to SPLM-DC party officials.
He and a delegation of leaders of other political parties were invited by the IGAD mediation to participate in the peace talks set to start today in Addis Ababa.
SPLM-DC spokesman Mahjoub Yel said that Lam Akol passed successfully through all the ticketing and exit procedures at the airport when suddenly minutes before the flight they were told by airport authorities that they received directives from the presidency to not allow Lam and other delegation members to travel to the talks.
After returning to his home in Juba, Lam Akol said that they were blocked from traveling in spite of having invitations from the IGAD peace mediators.
“Unfortunately, a major general of the police told us that he has directives from the Presidency that the leaders of political parties are not allowed to travel without the permission from the presidency,” Akol told Reuters.
According to SPLM-DC, the IGAD mediators this time sent two sets of invitations to Political Parties, one set to the political parties in government and another set of invitations to the parties in opposition.
This comes after a power struggle in the Political Parties Leadership forum last year, in which the Cabinet Minister Martin Elia tried to take control of the group, which consists largely of opposition parties and not members of government.
Meanwhile, the government delegation has left yesterday evening to Addis Ababa for another round of IGAD talks.
File photo: Lam Akol (Radio Tamazuj)