The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In-Opposition (SPLM-IO) has decried the continued confinement of its leader, Dr Riek Macahr, in the capital Juba.
Dr Machar returned to Juba in 2019 to form a transitional government with President Salva Kiir and other groups according to the 2018 peace agreement. He has since been in Juba after his return to implement the deal.
In August 2022, First Vice President Riek Machar opened up for the first time and said he had been marooned and stuck in the capital, Juba.
When asked by Radio Tamazuj about Dr. Machar’s status at a press conference in Juba on Monday, SPLM-IO Secretary General Regina Joseph Kaba said: “He [Machar] cannot move; he is just in Juba, and when we say there is a need for civic and political space, it is for that.”
“You need to move freely also, and each candidate must be moving to see his members and campaign when we talk about campaigning. How can you do campaigns when other leaders cannot move? The SPLM-IG [SPLM in Government] can go around and do all sorts of campaigns, but the other parties have no rights to move,” she lamented.
The SPLM-IO Secretary-General has accused the ruling SPLM Party of “an appetite to gag the opposition” for holding their leader, Riek Machar, in Juba. “It is really a big issue. Our chairman, Dr. Riek Machar, must enjoy his right of movement,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Pal Mai Deng, the SPLM-IO official spokesman called for the lifting of restrictions imposed on the movement of First Vice President Riek Machar. He revealed that other members of the SPLM-IO party are also confined to Juba, without providing their names.
“We have too much restriction. As you know, the chair of SPLM-IO has been in Juba for almost five years now, and this is what we have been discussing all around. I remember in 2022 when security forces besieged his house, the SPLM-IO spoke, and I remember the very person who spoke vocally was Hon. Angelina,” said Mai.
“When we graduated the first [batch of] unified forces, the chairman of SPLM-IO delivered a speech on the very day. In his speech, there was a mention of confinement or restriction. Recently, he also wanted to go to one of the states, but he couldn’t go,” Mai added.
He continued, “So we have got restrictions, we have got restrictions, and the restrictions are not only for the chairman, it is also for other members of the SPLM-IO Party.”
South Sudan has never held elections as government officials have postponed them multiple times. Elections are scheduled for December 2024 to end the transitional period, but peace monitors and the international community say the transitional government hasn’t built up the structure necessary to hold free and fair elections.
The international community and civil society organizations have appealed to the parties to the peace agreement to hold dialogue as pressure mounts for general elections.