SPLM-IO’s withdrawal from peace bodies alarms citizens
Citizens have lamented that the recent move by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) to withdraw from the security mechanisms could threaten the peace agreement.
On Monday, a civil activist and Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani, said he had been approached by most of the citizens who voiced concerns about the status of the agreement.
He stated that the repeated calls from citizens suggested that the population is in fear and that the country’s leaders must act quickly.
“Today, we have had a number of phone calls from people across the country expressing their concerns about recent SPLM/A-IO ceasefire security procedures, and from what I’ve observed, the general attitude has shifted to one of fear and feeling threatened by the new development,” Mr Yakani said.
According to the activist, the situation is getting more dangerous not just for the parties executing the peace deal, but also for the general people.
He said people who are observing the violence are concerned that the trend will return the country to a state of full turmoil.
“So, as a civil society activist, I would like to take this opportunity to call upon the leaders of the country to act urgently because the country is not in a good mood. The country is in a mood of like this is the beginning of 2016, an incident that started with similar issues that took the country to serious violence,” Mr. Yakani appeals.
“So, I have witnessed just from today (yesterday) all over the country with the phone calls that we received from several people across the nation. This tells us that people are leaving in fear.
He feels that the leaders must have something to communicate to the public in order for them to come together.
“Because I was at Gumbo Bus Park and saw individuals plotting to flee Juba before anything goes wrong, I believe it is our leaders’ obligation to truly give the word to the public that there will be no return to bloodshed,” she said.
To avoid further panic, he urged leaders to act quickly in terms of communicating with the public.
He added that the SPLM-IO’s withdrawal from security measures, as well as the current level of tension, are beyond the leadership of the R-JMEC.
Therefore, the tension now needs the regional body to come in, and the best way that regional body will come is for Uganda and Sudan to call for the quick R-JMEC meeting or for an IGAD quick response team to come to Juba to meet the leaders of these parties one by one and try to ask them to come together.
Yakani added that if the situation continues for the next two to three days with high levels of authorities’ interventions, then the chances of escalation of violence outside Juba are very high, especially since the leaders of the front line will not have the same understandings.
