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Top South Sudan Opposition Members Ditch Machar, Jump to Ruling Party

Dimo Silva Aurelio

   JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN - More members of South Sudan's main opposition party
   have defected to the ruling party led by President Salva Kiir, with one
   former member accusing First Vice President Riek Machar of running the
   opposition like a family dynasty.

   Dak Duop Bichiok, a former SPLM-IO (Sudan People's Liberation
   Movement-in-Opposition) political bureau member, announced his
   resignation and that of hundreds of his followers in the diaspora at a
   Juba news conference late last week.

   "We are declaring that we are not any longer part of Dr. Riek Machar,
   and we are not alone. We have a group in Nairobi, Egypt, Khartoum and
   also in Addis Ababa and in the diaspora elsewhere in the world," he
   said.

   The defections began after Machar's wife, Angelina Teny, was appointed
   minister of defense in South Sudan's transitional unity government.

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