Government on Friday announced that it must re-take Malakal town of Upper Nile State from opposition forces to rescue civilians from SPLM/A in opposition atrocities.
Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek Ateny told journalists that no town would be left to the control of what he termed ‘rebels of Dr Riek Machar’.
He said, ‘the government has to re-take the town first in order to start looking at the civilians because the government has no presence now in Malakal, it is four kilometers away and the rebels are the ones causing havoc, they are the ones killing civilians’.
He added that the government remains committed to the ongoing peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia despite violation of Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.
The press secretary said he was not aware of the work of the IGAD Monitoring and Verification Mechanism team expected to sort out issues of ceasefire agreement’s violations.