South Sudan opposition splits after leader’s house arrest

South Sudan’s opposition party split on Wednesday, complicating an already fractured political environment as its leader remained under house arrest in the capital Juba.

The country has been roiled by clashes between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, with the former placed under house arrest last month.

Tensions between the pair have threatened a 2018 peace deal that ended a bloody five-year civil war, and concerned international observers who fear a return to the bloodshed that took 400,000 lives.

On Wednesday, Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) announced they would appoint Stephen Par Kuol as their interim leader while he remained in custody.

“It is not a coup,” Kuol said, outlining the SPLM-IO’s objectives.

“What we have done is to resolve this leadership crisis that has been created by the crisis that comes as a result of the detention of our chairman,” he told reporters.

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However, mere hours later the military wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO), announced they remained under the “full command and control” of Machar.

A statement from the SPLA-IO spokesperson Lam Paul Gabriel said Machar’s deputy, Nathaniel Oyet Pierino, would assume command “in his absence”.

In the post on Facebook, he said the chief of stafF, Peter Thok Chuol, had directed members to “distance themselves from the betrayers in Juba”. It did not give further details.

It follows an SPLM-IO decision to suspend Kuol from the party on Monday, accusing him of attempting to “create disunity in the party” by “mobilizing” to replace Machar with the support of Kiir’s government.

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