South Sudan’s first Vice President, Riek Machar, has accused opposing military commanders of attempting to sabotage the country’s peace process by announcing his deposition as party and armed forces head.
On Wednesday, the military wing of President Salva Kiir’s SPLM/A-IO movement announced that Machar had been ousted. Machar had aided in pushing his partner, President Salva Kiir, to a peace deal in 2018 and the subsequent formation of a unification government.
However, in a late-day retort, Machar claimed that individuals who released the statement were no longer members of the movement’s military leadership council.
Machar claimed in a statement released following a meeting of his party’s Political Bureau that the announcement was “planned and sponsored by peace breakers.”
The removal of the first vice president is being viewed as a cowardly decision.
According to the military wing’s statement, the party’s chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, has been named interim party leader.
South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011, but conflict broke out two years later in the capital, when forces loyal to Kiir and Machar battled.
(Reuters)