Leaked memo accuses Uganda of harming S.Sudan’s peace

ANKARA (AA) - A leaked internal memo from an official of an East African regional trade bloc described Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni as a “threat” to peace in South Sudan, a news agency in the country reported Friday.

“We [Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)] are playing with our minds. There will never be peace in South Sudan as long as other IGAD member states keep quiet. The real threat in South Sudan is Uganda, and we must confront Uganda if we want peace to return to South Sudan,” the SSNA news agency quoted an anonymous IGAD official as writing Aug. 15.

“One million dollars a month is the one keeping Uganda in South Sudan. This new country is now the second source of Museveni finance,” the memo claims, according to SSNA.

It also quoted a high-ranking anonymous IGAD diplomatic source as claiming Museveni privately asked South Sudan's President Salva Kiir not to go to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, earlier this month for a face-to-face meeting with rival former South Sudan Vice President and current leader of the SPLM/IO movement Riek Machar.

Machar went to Addis Ababa. However, Kiir said he was “very busy with other things” at the time and asked IGAD to allow Machar to meet him in South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

Machar declined that invitation and returned to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, according to SSNA.

Neither Juba nor Kampala have yet to comment on the allegations by SSNA.