South Sudanese President calls for end to infighting in rival camp

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Tuesday called for an immediate end to infighting between rival military factions in the movement of his former nemesis, Vice President Riek Machar, after the weekend violence took hold. dozens of deaths.

Kiir’s call came as African regional body IGAD warned that the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement / Machar Opposition Army split “is beyond an intra-party crisis and has significant immediate and long-term implications “for the world’s youngest nation.

At least 32 people were killed in the clashes that erupted on Saturday, just days after Machar’s rivals in his SPLA-I0 said they ousted him as party leader and head of his armed forces .

Following a meeting Tuesday with Machar and other cabinet members, Kiir’s office issued a statement calling for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” between the two camps.

The talks followed an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on Monday hosted by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) which called on warring factions to open a dialogue.

The East African bloc has been a key player in peace talks to end the five-year civil war in South Sudan between forces loyal to Machar and Kiir that claimed the lives of nearly 400 000 people.

But the latest fighting within Machar’s own movement threatens to put more pressure on the already fragile peace deal signed in 2018 and the power-sharing agreement between the two men.

Each side accused the other of launching the early morning attacks on rival forces in Upper Nile state which borders Sudan on Saturday.

South Sudan. By (AFP)

Machar’s forces killed two major generals and more than 27 “enemy” soldiers, and lost three of their own, a military spokesman for the vice president said.

In turn, the forces led by Simon Gatwech Dual – the general appointed last week as acting head of the SPLA-IO – claimed in a statement that they had killed 28 people and lost four in their ranks.

The world’s newest nation has grappled with war, famine and a chronic political and economic crisis since celebrating its hard-fought independence from Sudan in July 2011.

Kiir also urged the government to move forward with the formation of a unified command of the armed forces – a key part of the peace deal and which Machar claims to be opposed by his enemies.

IGAD brings together Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Eritrea suspended its membership in 2007 and has not been readmitted.