The newly appointed First Vice President of South Sudan Taban Deng said he decided to replace his former boss Riek Machar to save peace from collapsing.
In a statement broadcast by the South Sudan Broadcasting corporation last week, Deng claimed that Machar has repeatedly failed to build confidence and cooperate with leaders he has been previously tasked to work with.
“Riek failed to cooperate with Omar Bashir when Khartoum peace agreement was signed in 1997. He failed to cooperate with John Garang when they signed the peace agreement in 2002. Now, he is failing to cooperate with Salva Kiir after they signed the peace agreement in Addis 2015,” Taban said. “We don’t need anything to fail us again. We are all ready to move forward with the peace in our country”
Deng advised Riek to step aside for peace and wait for the general election in 2018.
“If he wants, he should return to Juba peacefully or go anywhere and let the peace be implemented and wait the next elections. Nobody will stop him from running elections for any office.