Nine South Sudanese opposition groups have formed an alliance geared at ending the conflict in the world’s youngest nation. The alliance is referred to as the South Sudan Opposition Alliance and whose main focus is to ensure that the talks do not collapse and the conflict in South Sudan is ended promptly.
The nine leaders headed the following parties to create an umbrella party; Federal Democratic Party, National Salvation Front, National Democratic Movement, People’s Democratic Movement, South Sudan Liberation Movement, South Sudan National Movement for Change, South Sudan Patriotic Movement, South Sudan United Movement, and United Democratic Alliance. The group is eyeing to present a unified front in the ongoing talks and cultivate all its efforts and work together to address the issues the nation faces.
The rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), loyal to South Sudan’s former First Vice President Riek Machar, and the SPLM Former Detainees (SPLM-FD) were not mentioned among the groups in the new alliance.
Since violence erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, several groups opposed to President Salva Kiir sprang up, and leaders fled to the neighboring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
