IGAD Calls for a government of national unity in Uganda
4 min readIGAD is demanding the formation of a government of national unity in Kampala to avoid South Sudan style violent conflict in the Republic of Uganda
February 20, 2016 (SSB) — IGAD, the regional body that brokered a peace deal and a coalition government in South Sudan, has officially requested the two main presidential candidates, Yoweri Museveni and Kizza Besigye, to form a government of national unity immediately.
“Tension is rising and the country is highly polarized,” said an IGAD top official. “To avoid a civil war like what is going on in South Sudan, we call upon the people of Uganda to immediately establish a government of national unity, after which fresh elections would be announced and conducted under UN supervision.”
Yoweri Museveni, the leading presidential candidate and immediate former president who has been in power for the last 30 years since he took power in a revolutionary armed struggle in 1986, reacted angrily to the call from IGAD.
“There is an ongoing war in the Sudan, Darfur and Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue Nile, when is IGAD going to establish a government of national unity in Khartoum,” he thundered. “And there is problem in Ethiopia between the government and the Oromo and Amharic people. Let IGAD call for a government of national unity in Addis Ababa first.”
A highly irritated Museveni continues, “And will IGAD call for the same coalition government in Kenya next year or is this something applicable to South Sudan and Uganda only? This is outrageous. Where have they been since 1991 when Somalia imploded or are they afraid of Al-Shabab?”
“Uganda is not South Sudan and IGAD must know that,” concluded Museveni.
The call by IGAD has received overwhelmingly support from Dr. Riek Machar of the SPLM-IO and the CORD leader Raila Odinga, PM Desalegn of Ethiopia and President Bashir of the Sudan.
Meanwhile, President Kiir of South Sudan, and President Kenyatta of Kenya have condemned IGAD in the strongest terms possible and are threatening to leave the regional body if it does not respect the sovereignty of Uganda.
“This proliferation of make-shift interim governments by IGAD is bad for Africa and is in the interest of the prophet of dooms,” said President Kiir in his J-1 palace. “Inu, it is killing democracy and seriously undermining the rule of law in Africa.”
President Uhuru Kenyatta concurs: “we should condemn IGAD for behaving like a fifth columnist of the ICC. We should never allow our sovereignty to be insulted by non-nation actors planted by neocolonists to confuse and recolonize our beloved continent.”
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who is rumored to be training Burundian troops to depose his counterpart in Bujumbura, is in a big a dilemma and has only released a terse statement urging both sides to exercise restraint.
However, IGAD has stood by its statement, insisting that the lives of the Ugandan people, peace and order, is paramount to any talk of sovereignty. “We are acting under the UN mandate of responsibility to protect civilian lives and property. We must not just focus on sovereignty without putting into consideration the responsibility to protect mandate as enunciated by Dr. Francis Mading Deng.”
There is no reaction so far from either the UN, US, EU or the Troika. The UN has appealed to donors to provide food and shelters for the thousands of Ugandan refuges pouring into South Sudan at the Nimule border town.
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