South Sudan’s main opposition party accuses president of breaching peace deal

By Benjamin Takpiny

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir was accused by the country's main opposition party Thursday of breaching a peace deal by choosing someone from his own party to serve as defense minister instead of allowing the party of the first vice president and opposition leader, Riek Machar, to decide.

Kiir recently dismissed Defense Minister Angelina Teny and Interior Minister Mahmoud Solomon by a presidential decree read out on state television. No reason was cited for the move.

On Wednesday, Kiir appointed Gen. Chol Thon Balok, a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), as the new minister of defense and veterans affairs.

“The appointment of the minister of defense by President Kiir is unilateral and a new blatant violation of the peace agreement,” Puok Both Baluang, Machar’s spokesperson, told Anadolu.

He said Kiir and Machar are yet to agree over the issue of the Ministry of Defense and for President Kiir to appoint a defense minister was a surprise to them and they have condemned the move and reject the appointment.

Baluang said the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) party under First Vice President Machar still stands by the resolutions of their meeting held early this month on the issue of the Defense Ministry and they are calling on Kiir to reinstate Teny as defense minister.

Abraham Kuol Nyuon, a professor of political science at the University of Juba, said it would have been better to delay the decision to appoint a defense minister until the dispute over the sacking of Teny was resolved.

“It would have been very good if the president had held off the appointment of those two positions until a consensus was reached,” Nyuon, said.

Ter Manyang Gatwech, a human rights activist and head of the Juba-based Centre for Peace and Advocacy (CPA), said the appointment of a new defense minister from Kiir’s party will cause mistrust between the two leaders and that will set the country back unless it is addressed with care.

“There will be mistrust between Kiir and Machar, and that will set us back unless it is handled with a sense of responsibility and cooperation between the two leaders,” he said.

He said the country in a few months will face heavy individual sanctions due to the slow implementation of the roadmap, especially chapter two of the peace agreement.

Early this month, another decree was issued that switched control over the ministries, saying the Ministry of Defense will now be controlled by Kiir’s party the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), whereas the Ministry of Interior will go to the SPLM-IO under Machar.

In 2018, Kiir and Machar’s forces signed a peace agreement ending five years of civil war that killed 400,000 people

South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013 after President Kiir accused Machar, who he had sacked earlier that year, of plotting a coup. Fighting initially broke out in Juba, but after, Machar and his supporters fled the city.