IGAD Convenes Crisis Meeting Over Fresh Tension in South Sudan
South Sudan’s neighbours are set to hold a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss the country’s latest political crisis.
It follows clashes over the weekend between factions of the military wing of First Vice-President Riek Machar’s party, with heavy casualties reported.
A group of generals within Machar’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM-IO) last week said they had replaced him with Simon Gatwech Dual as interim leader of the party.
The meeting of the East African body, Igad, was called by Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Mariam Alsadig Al-Mahdi in a bid to help rescue South Sudan’s fragile peace deal that was signed in 2018.
The regional bloc said the situation in South Sudan required urgent attention.
Clashes between the two factions in SPLM-IO over the weekend saw at least 34 soldiers killed from both sides, according to local outlets.