Regional leaders are now in a meeting with members of South Sudan’s holdout opposition groups in Khartoum, a spokesman of the group said.

The South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) and the SPLM-FDs are all non-signatories to the governance agreement that the government and other opposition groups, including the SPLM-IO initialled last week.

Kwaje Lasu, the official spokesman of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), told Radio Tamazuj this afternoon that a meeting between East African leaders and SSOA is underway in Khartoum ahead of the final signing of the peace agreement.

“The meeting is going on right now between head of states and government and SSOA. The region came to realize that SSOA was not part of the agreement, that is why they decided to meet SSOA to discuss the issue,” Kwaje said.

“If our concerns are going to be considered, we will sign the agreement today. But If our concerns are not addressed, will not sign the agreement,” he said.

Kwaje, who is also the secretary general of the opposition alliance, accused the Sudanese security agencies of intimidating some representatives of the holdout groups in Khartoum over the past few days.

“We were intimated by security services in Khartoum. Our members who are now in Khartoum were threatened with deportation. They were told that if you are refusing to sign, you will be deported back to Juba,” he said.

“Our representatives were in a very difficult situation during the last 48 hours. Nobody was arrested but they were intimidated,” he added.