The leader of the opposition national alliance, Dr Lam Akol, says he has been prevented from leaving the country to participate in the peace talks in Addis Ababa under IGAD-Plus.

He was leading a delegation of seven members on invitation by the mediators.

The warring parties are discussing this week a proposal to end the conflict.

The government has rejected key provisions in the Compromise Agreement presented by the international mediators.

Although the National Alliance doesn’t want the different SPLM factions to take more than 90% of power as proposed by the mediators, it still considers the draft as fair for the warring parties.

Dr Akol and the accompanying delegation were going to participate in this round of talks to discuss these issues.

However, he said they were prevented from leaving the country at Juba airport.

“They told us that it is not allowed for the political parties alliances to travel to the talks,” Dr Akol said.

“A Major from the police came to us and said that there were instructions from the Presidency that the leaders of political parties are banned from traveling outside the country without permission from the Presidency.”

Dr. Lam said this decision is a violation of their constitutional rights to freedom of movement.

“Of course, we do not work with the government to ask them for permission. We have a constitutional right to travel as guaranteed to us,” he added.

He said the alliance has complained to IGAD about the travel ban order. Government officials have not been available to comment.

But when a similar incident happened in September 2014, the ministry of foreign affairs said Dr Akol was prevented from leaving the country on what the government termed as “technical issues.”