HOTELS-SPLM-IO non-security members out

The non-security members of SPLM-IO have been ordered to evacuate all the hotels in Juba today.

This comes in the wake of other ranking officials in the SPLM-IO who will remain in the hotels without giving deadline.

In the document seen by Juba Monitor yesterday, the Executive director in the Office of First Vice President Maj.Gen. Martin Gama Abucha said that all the SPLM-IO members who are not members of the security mechanism should leave the hotels and find other accommodation options.

The Document addressed to Tut Gatluak, Presidential Advisor on Security Affairs terminates accommodation for all non-security Mechanism members.

“This letter subject: Termination of Accommodation for all Non-Security Mechanism serves to inform you that, accommodation for all SPLM/SPLA (IO) cadres who are not members of the security Mechanism ends Friday March 12, 2021.

You are kindly advised to check out promptly and find yourself alternative accommodation. My apologies in advance for any inconveniences this abrupt notice might cause,” the letter stated.

Meanwhile Civil Society Organization (CSO) came in with open arms welcoming the move of evacuating the hotels but still condemn the sections of officials left with advantage of being Military persons.

The Executive Director of FODAG, Jame David Kolok criticised the parties for not evacuating all the government officials staying in hotels.

“We do not need parties that are-signatory to the Peace Agreement to use this opportunity for their luxuries. All these officials should have been in their homes and duty places”, he said.

Mr. Kolok revealed that, this move should have been applied to all, not only non-security people.

“All parties including SPLM members should be removed from hotels and begin living in their homes. Except few security personnel that are deployed there in hotels to provide security services,” he concluded.

In February, politicians were kicked out due to unpaid 50 million Hotel Bills.

Up to 300 representatives who have “lived in luxury” in Juba during peace talks are being ejected after “warnings to the government about mounting debts” totalling to around $50m (£36.4m) “went ignored”, reports The Times.

Mr. Kot Maker, manager of the capital’s luxurious Royal Palace Hotel, told the paper how he had shut off power and water in a bid to force out guests who had lived there for three years without settling their accounts.

Mr. Maker said: “We have no gun. We have to pursue them, we have to talk to them politely, and we have to convince them to leave peacefully, because if they refuse we have to call the police in.”

The ejected guests see things very differently. One described the hotel managers’ behavior as “inhumane”, telling Voice of America: “We feel so bad that we have been thrown out at the end and nobody is taking care of us from now on.” The row comes less than two months after humanitarian groups warned that South Sudan was facing a “catastrophic” conflict-fuelled famine. In a joint statement, UN agencies including the World Food Programme said that 6.5 million people were facing severe food insecurity, with that total projected to increase to 7.24 million by July – equivalent to more than 60% of the population.

VIA JUBA MONITOR