South Sudan’s main opposition leader Riek Machar on Sunday said he will likely not be a part of a unity government in November, reported Africa News.
In a meeting with the UN Security Council delegation, Machar warned that the country could return to civil war if President Salva Kiir forms a coalition government by Nov. 12 deadline.
“We want to do this right, we want to do it right. So if we are not there on the 12th as President Salva (Kiir) had threatened that he will form the government on the 12th, I ask my colleagues here do not blame us. We have a volatile situation that we want to control. We want this country to be peaceful”, Machar said.
In May, President Kiir and Machar agreed to form a unity government in six months. In September, both leaders said they will form a transitional government by November 12 as part of the peace deal. But the pact has stalled as the government claims it lacks finances to fund disarmament and integration of the army.
The rebel leader said the parties have failed to agree on ways to integrate the army, a key condition of a peace accord signed last year, so there is no way out to form a government without meeting the pre-requisites.
Machar called out the UN delegation for a few months’ time as he warned that rushing into the arrangement would lead to disaster.
However, the UN Security Council is still positive that the issues that Machar has pointed out can be solved by the November 12 deadline.
Kelly Craft, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said the Security Council has called on the two parties of the agreement to speed up the implementation of all the necessary transitional security arrangements, to clear the issue of the number and boundaries of states and to peacefully form the revitalized transitional government of national unity by November 12.
