South Sudan government confirms FM defection

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - The South Sudanese government confirmed to Anadolu Agency the defection of its foreign minister, Deng Alor.

Alor has been in Ethiopia since February when he had traveled to Addis Ababa for a round of talks.

"He defected," said Information Ministry spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth. "He refused to go back to Juba."

He did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, Martin Alia Lomuro, the South Sudanese minister of cabinet affairs, read out a message from President Salva Kiir to the media on the just ended extraordinary summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an east African trading and security bloc that has mediated the South Sudan peace process since January 2014.

In the statement, Juba decried the UN resolution last month, which enforces an arms embargo against South Sudan and imposes a travel ban against several government officials.

"To enhance the achievement of peace in South Sudan, the TGoNU (transitional government of national unity) wishes to reiterate its position that IGAD, the AU [African Union] and the UN must have properly investigated verifiable information to levy punitive measures against all those who they claim obstruct peace in South Sudan, irrespective of the Party they belong to," the statement said.

"The international community can contribute positively if it is honest and must desist from regional and continental political interests," it said.

Meanwhile, the statement said, the leaders of IGAD who met Thursday in Addis Ababa decided that President Salva Kiir and his main rival Riek Machar would meet in Khartoum, Sudan.

IGAD leaders had an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to endorse a new proposal to take the South Sudanese peace process forward.

The meeting followed a face-to-face between Salva Kiir and Riek Machar on Wednesday.

The proposal comprised key issues about power sharing, transitional security arrangement, demilitarization and cantonment of armies.

According to the proposal, the Transitional Government of National Unity would have a Legislative Assembly composed of the incumbent government (55 percent), the South Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army–in- Opposition (25 percent), and other parties and entities (20 percent).

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and four million left their homes in the almost five years of civil war triggered as a result of a political fallout between President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, whom the former accused of plotting a coup.

The United Nations last week announced that it delayed a travel sanction against the South Sudanese officials until June 30, encouraged by the prospect of a meeting between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar.