The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) and SPLM-Leaders delegations at South Sudan’s peace talks hosted in Ethiopia say they would like the opposition politician Lam Akol to join the negotiations.

Lam Akol heads a delegation of non-armed opposition parties based in Juba, referred to as the Political Parties Leadership Forum (PPLF) or sometimes simply as the ‘Political Parties’. Among these parties is SPLM-DC, headed by Lam Akol himself.

He was blocked from traveling to the peace talks on Saturday by security agents at Juba Airport, days after the government cabinet minister claimed Lam had been toppled from his position within the PPLF delegation.

Delegates of the civil society, religious leaders, the government, and other opposition groups are gathering in Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara region of Ethiopia, for the start of a new round of negotiations facilitated by the East African regional organization IGAD.  

Dhieu Mathok, deputy head of the SPLM-IO delegation, told Radio Tamazuj today that all the stakeholders have arrived in Bahir Dar except the Political Parties delegation.

“It is important for them to be around,” he said. “They must participate because they are part of the multi-stakeholders delegations.”

The SPLM-IO politician noted that the absence of the Political Parties delegation could affect the start of the talks.

John Luk, former justice minister and spokesman of the SPLM-Leaders, a group of exiled politicians known also as the ‘Former Detainees,’ likewise confirmed his support for the participation of Lam Akol and the Political Parties delegation.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj shortly after his arrival in Bahir Dar, John Luk said, “What was decided a long, long time ago is that the political parties are supposed to participate,” he said.

He said he had not seen yet in Bahir Dar any delegates representing the parties in Addis Ababa. “I think they are still sorting out their problems in Juba,” he said.

John Luk noted that Lam Akol and the other delegates of the Political Parties participated in the previous round of multi-stakeholder talks in Addis Ababa.

He recalled that his own group of SPLM-Leaders engaged with Lam Akol’s group in the thematic committees, including with Lam himself in the political committee, and other political parties’ delegates in the economic and security committees.

File photo: Lam Akol speaks at a PPLF meeting in June 2014

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