The government has extended the accommodation of the SPLM in Opposition team in Juba for one week.

The government started accommodating them less than two weeks ago, after Troika countries ended their sponsorship.

It is not clear how long the government had initially promised, but presidential secretary Ateny Wek Ateny told Eye Radio that the ministry of finance has now been directed to continue paying for the team’s accommodation.

“The ministry of finance will continue paying for the people who are already in the institutions and members of the advance team for the SPLA/M IO who are coming to work in the states government will go direct to their states and their states will pay their accommodations and the 50 parliament members who were appointed recently the government will pay for them,” Ateny Wek said.

“Now the number of the people the ministry of finance will pay for as we know, the advance team was 250, and other 50 will be coming and the reception committee will give to the finance ministry the names of these people.”

The SPLM in Opposition has confirmed the extension to Eye Radio.

The head of information for the team in Juba, William Ezekiel, says their chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, agreed with the president over the issue yesterday.

“They managed to push forward from the stalled issues which were a little bit pending implementation of the peace agreement, for instance issues in the communiqué of the IGAD foreign ministers; one of them is the extension of the IO advance team in Juba to one more week,” Mr Ezekiel told Eye Radio.

The team has been in Juba since December for the implementation of the peace agreement, but they are yet to agree on the number of states.