The ousted vice president of South Sudan has said that he is willing to stay out of the proposed interim government, according to a report by a Nairobi-based newspaper on Saturday.
Negotiators in Addis Ababa last month agreed to move forward with talks on establishing an interim government that would rule during a permanent constitutional process and oversee elections preparations.
However, the animosity between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar have complicated plans for a unity government.
The East African newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, reported that the South Sudanese opposition leader expressed his willingness to stay out of the interim government during a meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at their meeting in Nairobi last week.
“Diplomatic sources said Dr Machar told President Kenyatta he would wait ‘patiently’ for the transitional government — to be known as the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGONU) — to achieve [its] mandate, over an unspecified period of time,” reads the news story.
“In a meeting at State House Nairobi on Thursday, Dr Machar is said to have insisted that the transition include stakeholders drawn from political parties, civil society, religious leaders and ex-detainees, and that he is willing to stay out the entire term of the caretaker government,” added the report.
But the ousted vice president is also pushing hard for the transitional government to have a strong federal character. He is also reported to have insisted on a provision that those who participate in the transitional government must not take part in the elections to be called by the latter.
This would conflict with President Salva Kiir’s declared intention to remain president indefinitely. Kiir said in an address last month, “I am the president of South Sudan, and I must always remain in that position.”
Machar’s meeting with Uhuru Kenyatta came last Thursday after preparatory talks with two of Kenya’s IGAD Special Envoys, Lazarus Sumbeiywo and Dalmas Otieno. The meeting with Kenyatta then reportedly went late into the evening.
Machar’s visit to Kenya is facilitated by the mediators of the East African regional organization IGAD. He previously was staying in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and before that in rebel-held territory in eastern South Sudan.
File photo: Riek Machar (right) signs an agreement to end the conflict in South Sudan. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam is seated to his right.