The former political detainee, Pagan Amum Okiech, has been sworn in as the SPLM party Secretary General.

Mr Pagan held the position since 2007 until he fell out with the party chairman, President Salva Kiir in 2013, several months before the current conflict.

Mr Pagan said the party had lost vision and direction. The president responded by suspending him and putting him under investigation on allegations that he mismanaged the affairs of the party.

When the conflict broke out in December 2013, Pagan was among 11 politicians detained and accused of plotting a coup. They were later released to the care of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In February 2014, the president dismissed him from the position altogether.

In an emergency meeting in Juba yesterday, the National Liberation Council approved that the all the decisions to remove him should be revoked and reinstated into the position.

The approval followed a meeting of the political bureau on Monday with a delegation of former political detainees led by Pagan.

They are following up the implementation of the Arusha Agreement to reunite the party.

The spokesman of the government delegation to Arusha, Akol Paul, says Pagan’s return to Juba shows the party has reunited.

“Today, we are united. No more SPLM former detainees, no more talk about G-10, no more talk about FDs. This is one SPLM under comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit,” Paul said.

He added that a summit of five heads of state will be held in Tanzania this week to try to convince Dr Riek Machar to join the full implementation of the Arusha Agreement.

He says Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Deslagn, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Jacob Zuma of South Africa will join their Tanzanian counterpart, Jakaya Kikwete.