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| Vice-President Riek Machar |
Fissures
between the opposition party and its military wing pose the latest existential
threat to the fragile peace process in South Sudan and could delay plans for a
united national army.
Over the weekend of 7-8 August fighting
erupted between military factions of Vice-President Riek
Machar's Sudan People's Liberation Movement in
Opposition (SPLM-IO) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army-in-Opposition
(SPLA-IO).
It came after Machar's
rivals claimed that they had deposed him as the head of the party and its
military forces on 4 August.
The fighting in Magenis in the Upper Nile
region, between forces loyal to Machar and those backing Lieutenant-General Simon
Gatwech Dual, saw both sides make claims of having
killed dozens of soldiers.
The attempted ousting of Machar last
week, by Lt. Gen. Dual and Brig. Gen. William
Gatjiath Deng of the SPLA-IO, who accused
Machar of nepotism, dictatorship and abandoning the vision of the party,
follows a long-running power struggle.
In June Machar sought
to dismiss Dual from his post as chief of general staff.
SPLM-IO spokesman Lam
Paul Gabriel said the party's forces responded
'in self-defence' and killed two major-generals and over 27 soldiers. He said
those fighting on SPLA-IO side lost three soldiers during the attack.
The 2018 peace agreement, setting out the
terms of the transitional government, makes Machar hard to shift because he is
specifically named as the person from the SPLM-IO to take the seat of first
Vice-President as long as the transitional government exists.
Vice-President Riek Machar (L) and Lieutenant-General Simon Gatwech Dual
Machar's allies,
meanwhile, have hinted that the attempting ousting could have been planned by
other members of the unity government to strengthen President Salva
Kiir's position.
Others have pointed to the attempted
putsch as a sign of widespread frustration with the unity government and at the
glacial pace of implementing the peace plan.
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