The parties to the South Sudan peace agreement and its guarantors yesterday endorsed a plan to bring 1,370 troops of the SPLM/A-IO to Juba within the coming week, paving the way for the return of opposition leader Riek Machar to take up his post as first vice president.

This represents a compromise between the government and the SPLM/A-IO, which had demanded more than 2,000 of its troops be present in Juba as a minimum threshold for Machar's return and for forming the Transitional Government of National Unity.

Festus Mogae, chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), told journalists after a meeting of the body yesterday that the number includes 700 SPLM/A-IO forces to serve as police in Juba, per the terms of the peace deal which create a joint police force in Juba.

In a press release, the JMEC Secretariat explained, “Beginning immediately, arrangements will be initiated for 1,370 SPLM/A (In Opposition) forces to be transported to Juba. The arrival of these SPLM/A (IO) forces will constitute the first phase of security arrangements for the capital. It was agreed at today’s JMEC meeting that this number of troops and police would be sufficient for the return of the First Vice President-designate and the therefore allow for the establishment of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU).”

Under the terms of a security deal reached last November, the SPLM/A-IO are entitled to send a total of 1,410 troops to Juba plus 1,500 police, for a total of 2,910 opposition troops in Juba.

However, under the compromise struck yesterday, the remaining number of opposition troops will arrive only after the formation of the transitional government, according to JMEC.

Mogae said, “We have set a target for the 1st March. Whether we can do that, we don't know, but the idea is the earlier it can be done, the better.” He explained that mediators had initially planned to bring the SPLM/A-IO troops to Juba in three tranches, but this new plan means combining the first and second phase, for more rapid deployment, “as an agreed condition for the return of the leader of the opposition, the First Vice President.”

For his part, South Sudan's Information Minister Makuei Lueth confirmed the deal, saying, “It was clear that the establishment of the Transitional Government of National Unity requires the transportation of the SPLM/A-IO forces – that is, the police, the security organs plus the army – to Juba, and it is agreed that 1,370 soldiers be transported here including the joint integrated police... from now up to the end of the March.”

Western military powers are expected to be asked to aid in transporting the SPLM/A-IO troops from opposition-held areas of South Sudan to the capital Juba, either with their own aircrafts or by charter flights.

Mogae says that the weapons for the SPLA-IO soldiers will be transported separately “because the donors have problems transporting armed people.”

“Within the next two weeks, we could have the Vice President inside South Sudan,” said Mogae.

Photo: Riek Machar

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Mogae to propose 'compromise plan' for Machar's return to Juba