South Sudan’s main armed opposition movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) would never accept going to Juba with a force less than 12,000 thousands soldiers, according to a high level sources .
A high level SPLM-IO official said their Chairman, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, must be accompanied by a number of 12,000 men as his protection and that the group will never accept going to the capital city with less than that number.
“Machar must go to Juba with a force that is 12,000 strength.
He must take that number with him to Juba and we will not accept something that is less,” the official said
The official pointed out that the mentioned force must first be in place in Juba before Machar could go to Juba to take up his position as the country’s First Vice President so as to avoid “mistakes of the past” referring to the July 2016 incident in which Machar had to go to Juba as part of a pressure by the international community to implement the agreement although only 1370 of his forces arrive in Juba and the government did not demilitarize the town.