South Sudan govt accused of expelling ceasefire monitors from W Equatoria, again
South Sudan's government prevented a team of ceasefire monitors in Tendera area of Western Equatoria state and expelled them back to Juba last week, a rebel official said.
Gen. James Koang Chol, a member of the armed opposition on the CTSAMM ceasefire monitoring mechanism, told Radio Tamazuj that ceasefire monitors tried to verify the presence of opposition forces in the Tundra area after the government denied their existence in the region, but they were stopped by the authorities.
“Recently the monitors tried to go toward Tendera, there is an area called Tendera there, to verify our forces, but they were brought back by the government, this happened last week," said Koang.
CTSAMM has not made any public comment on the incident.
Last week's hindrance is not the first time CTSAMM has faced harassment by government authorities in Western Equatoria. In March, authorities in Western Equatoria state arrested a five-person team of ceasefire monitors in Yambio town, held them overnight, then expelled them to Juba.
In December last year, an SPLA officer also threatened to shoot a CTSAMM monitoring team if they tried to investigate alleged helicopter gunship attacks in the Mundri area.
Separately, James Koang accused the government of shelling their positions in Wau County of Western Bahr al Ghazal state in an attempt to prevent the ceasefire monitors from visiting that area too.
Koang noted that government commanders on the CTSAMM ceasefire mission recently asked the ceasefire monitors to verify seven of their positions within Juba on 19 April to ensure full demilitarization of the capital.
When asked about their forces, Koang said they are still waiting for transportation of more 1,540 opposition forces to Juba so the total number of the SPLA-IO forces reaches 2,920 as per the peace agreement.
About 1,370 SPLA-IO troops including police are already in Juba to pave the way for the return of the armed opposition leader Riek Machar which is scheduled for next week.
File photo: CTSAMM Chairman Major General Molla Hailemariam. Credit: UNMISS/JC McIlwaine
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