Factions of South Sudan’s Opposition Alliance (SSOA) said they haven’t received any invitation by Pope Francis to attend meetings at the Vatican.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, his vice presidents and other key opposition leaders are invited to attend a spiritual retreat at the Vatican next week.

“We have not received any invitation by the Vatican. We heard that there is a visit to the Vatican but we have not received any invitation letter,” Joseph Bangasi Bakasoro, a member of the SSOA faction led by Gabriel Changson told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday.

 “Our only challenge as members of the opposition umbrella is that we are divided into two factions, so this is the only challenge facing us,” he added.

However, Bakasoro, who leads the opposition group South Sudan National Movement for Change, said differences within the opposition coalition will not affect the implementation of the country's peace deal.

The coalition which is a signatory of the peace deal is divided over leadership. In November 2018, Lam Akol Ajawin, the leader of the opposition National Democratic Movement (NDM) supported the election of Peter Gatdet for the chairmanship of the alliance but the incumbent leader Gabriel Changson rejected the election.

On its part, the SSOA faction led by General Peter Gatdet said that they didn’t receive the invitation on the retreat at the Vatican.

“We have not been invited by the Vatican because of our internal crisis, so we will not be part of the planned meetings at the Vatican,” said Mahjoub Biel, the political secretary of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), a group backing Gatdet’s SSOA faction.

The meeting comes a month after President Kiir met with Pope Francis in Vatican City where they discussed the implementation of the revitalized peace deal.