South Sudan's main opposition party rejects president's call for dialogue to avoid civil war

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan 's main opposition party on Thursday dismissed a presidential call for dialogue to avoid the country slipping back into a civil war due to stalled peace talks.

Pal Mai Deng, a spokesperson for the opposition SPLM-IO, said President Salva Kiir ''must release political and military leaders of the SPLM-IO who are in detention to show his seriousness about the dialogue.''

During the reopening of parliament on Wednesday, Kiir said there was a need for unity and national reconciliation, adding that the ''doors of peace remain open.''

''The suffering of our people must not be prolonged by the continued rejection of dialogue,'' he said.

The situation in South Sudan remains tense after Vice President Riek Machar — Kiir's former rival — was placed under house arrest following an attack on army bases in March. Several members of the SPLM-IO opposition party have gone into exile fearing arrests.

South Sudan signed a peace agreement in 2018, ending a five-year civil war in which nearly 400,000 people died as forces loyal to Kiir and Machar clashed.

Deng told The Associated Press that Kiir's appeal was ''paradoxical and insincere'' due to the arrests of opposition officials and army attacks on opposition forces.

''Before he (Kiir) urged the parties to resume dialogue, he needed to stop military campaigns against SPLM-IO forces and indiscriminate killing of Nuer civilians he considered anti-government,'' said the exiled spokesperson.

The CEPO civil society group has warned that Machar's detention has made the continuation of talks impractical.

''The absence of Machar in the function of the government in day-to-day business of the government is making the government of national unity unbalanced,'' Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of CEPO, said.

The United Nation warned last month that a 2018 peace agreement was on the verge of collapse due to escalating violence, political repression, and foreign military involvement.

Yasmin Sooka, chairperson of the UN's Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, described the situation as a ''crisis'' adding that the peace agreement was at the ''brink of irrelevance, threatening a total collapse.''