A senior SPLM-IO official allied to Riek Machar said that they are planning to evacuate their soldiers who crossed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo following fighting Juba fighting in July.

About 700 soldiers who accompanied South Sudan’s former vice president Riek Machar to DRC in July remained in the eastern part of the DRC near Goma. The UN has reportedly been given one week by the Congolese government to fly the SPLA-IO soldiers out of the country after local protests against their presence.

Adel Sandira, representative of the SPLM-IO faction in Kenya, told Radio Tamazuj yesterday that the SPLA-IO soldiers will be moved to their camps in Central Equatoria State soon.

Sandira revealed that the armed opposition group will relocate its forces to military camps in Maridi, Ezo, Lainya and Yei area. “Our forces were in Congo under the protection of UN and they did not go there to open a base, but they accompanied the chairman Dr. Riek Machar,”said Sandira.

“We have not gone there to open a base in Congo, we have enough forces and bases in Equatoria in Maridi, Yambio, Ezo, Yei, Morobo, and Lainya and even in Juba,” he added.

File photo: SPLM-IO soldiers arriving in Juba earlier this year.