Ministers of the Transitional Government of National Unity Council resumed meeting on Friday in the presence of the armed opposition ministers (SPLM/A-IO), in spite of fighting earlier in the week between SPLA-IO troops and SPLA troops.
Ramadan Hassan Baku, an SPLM-IO leader who headed the movement’s advance team to Juba earlier this year, said that their ministers joined the cabinet meeting Friday chaired by President Salva Kiir. He said that this shows their commitment to implement the peace agreement.
“The peace agreement will continue,” he said.
However, First Vice President Riek Machar, the head of SPLM-IO, was not present at the meeting. As to his whereabouts, Baku indicated that he was somewhere on the outskirts of the city of Juba, as earlier was reported, pending entry of troops from IGAD as a third party to protect him. This comes after SPLA troops killed a number of his bodyguards in fighting last week.
But Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Week told Radio Tamazuj that if Riek Machar wants to wait until IGAD troops arrive before returning to the city then it will never happen, because the government will not accept more foreign troops in Juba. IGAD wants to dispatch reinforcements to the UN Mission in South Sudan.