Buay Rolnyang has not pulled out of Nairobi peace talks: Activist

The Executive Director for the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani  on Tuesday denied claims that the leader of the South Sudan People's Movement/Army (SSPM/A) Stephen Buay Rolnyang had pulled out of the ongoing Nairobi peace talks.
Gen. Stephen Buoy Rolnyang. (Courtesy photo)

By Simon Deng                                                                                                                                                          

The Executive Director for the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani  on Tuesday denied claims that the leader of the South Sudan People’s Movement/Army (SSPM/A) Stephen Buay Rolnyang had pulled out of the ongoing Nairobi peace talks.

“The information on social media that some of the opposition leaders have quit Nairobi peace talks is a lie, there is nobody that has left Nairobi peace talks, we are in high spirit of committing ourselves as per the declaration of commitments to make sure that we use dialogue for seeking peace and stability in our country,” Yakani told The Dawn.       

This comes in the aftermath of media reports claiming that Stephen Buay Rolnyang asked mediators to  pull out from the talks, citing assassination attempt on his life by National Security Service agents in Nairobi.

Stephen Buoy Rolnyang wrote to Gen. Lazaros Sumbeiywo, the chief mediator, a letter dated 20 May titled “Security Concerns” which said he received urgent intelligence on 15 May from Juba that Tut Keaw Gatluak, President Salva Kiir’s security advisor, sent a team of security agents to Nairobi to hunt and assassinate him in Nairobi.

“On 16/5/2024, the Juba security agents employed Kenyan agents wearing dark glass eyes and came to the Ole Sereni hotel where they kept hiding near the hotel toilets in the evening carrying some pictures in their hands definitely which might be my picture. I noticed them and I returned to my room and immediately alerted the security. I reported it to you the following morning in the meeting hall which Hon. Makuei Lueth refuted in front of everybody,” he wrote.

Yakani said the mediators promised to review operational, administrative and security matters in the wake of alleged threat to one of the opposition leaders.

He noted that the Kenyan government has reiterated commitment to ensure security and safety for all parties and stakeholders.         

In January, 2017 the Kenyan security agents in a covert operation with their South Sudanese counterparts abducted Aggrey Idri and human rights lawyer Samuel Dong Luak in Nairobi.

The two were members of the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in opposition (SPLM-IO) who were reported killed in 2019 in Juba by the United Nations human rights experts on South Sudan.

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