South Sudan rebel general rejects interim government with Kiir, Machar

General Peter Gatdet accused President Riek Machar of failing to keep the rebel ranks unified and using his position to seek personal gain.

Peace talks in neighbouring Ethiopia restarted last week as global pressure mounts ahead of an August 17 deadline to strike a deal. “TGNU should be led by South Sudanese who have the country and its people at heart”, said Gatdet, referring to the East African trading bloc that had been mediating the deal. “We now have a feeling of being betrayed by you at last, when we put all our trust on you to unites us to bring change to the very country”, said Lam.

Already more than two dozen armed groups are involved in a 19-month-long civil war that has left tens of thousands dead and has been marked by widespread atrocities on both sides.

But in two short years a civil war began once President Salva Kiir sacked his Vice President, Riek Machar, whose political ambitions and pocket-lining had become too great to bear. Fighting erupted in December 2013 between forces loyal to the president and rebels allied with Machar.

They urged IGAD and the global community to handle the South Sudanese crisis carefully in order to attain peace. The United States has threatened sanctions through the United Nations or European Union if the warring factions can’t sign an agreement by August 17, which would be hard to impose on a rebel group. “There would be no power sharing in the states”, said Machar. He seems to be taking that same stance in dealing with the horrifying civil war in South Sudan, a largely Christian nation that won independence in 2011 as it broke away from the Arab-dominated Sudan government.

“The country is falling apart because everything is in the hands of two people”, said John Mbaku, a nonresident senior fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings Institution in Washington.

August 25: Amid IGAD sanction warnings, Kiir and Machar ink another ceasefire in Addis Ababa, along with a deal to forge a unity government within 45 days.

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn is in Uganda to attend the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development summit on South Sudan. They may convince the Obama administration and others that “something” is being done, but they are a far cry from the real work that is needed – building a sense of nationhood and creating structures that involve people at the local level.

Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour handed over a message to president Museveni briefing him about the ongoing efforts to hold the national dialogue process in Sudan, said Sudanese ambassador to Uganda Abdel Bagi Kabir.