The main armed opposition led by the First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar, has denied claims that it arrested some of its officers over an attempt to defect to the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF).
The Spokesperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, said he was not aware of the arrest, but directed The City Review to speak to the Joint Defence Board (JDB) to verify the allegations. The JDB is in charge of all the forces.
Col. Lam was reacting to a media report in which the first deputy of the Council of State, Mary Ayen, recently called on Dr Machar to order the release of the officers.
The allegedly detained eight officers are said to be from the Ruweng Administrative Area. They include Brig. Gen. Choch Miyom Mayiik, Colonel Nyokrial Maibek Deng, Capt. Chol Miaper Deng Arop, and Capt. Miabek Gok Miabek.
They were allegedly arrested following the defection of some of their colleagues from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) to the SSPDF in Unity State in early November.
According to Ayen, who represents Ruweng Administrative Area at the Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (R-TNLA), the officers were still in SPLA-IO custody in Ding Ding Barrack, the SPLA-IO cantonment area in Unity State.
“This military personnel were arrested in Ding Ding after some of their colleagues shifted allegiance to SPLM from SPLM-IO.
“I wonder why these people are detained and there are rampant defections across parties,” Ayen told media at the sideline of the governors’ forum last week.
However, Col. Lam challenged the credibility of the information by Ayen and insisted that it was only the JDB that could give concrete information on the matter.
“We have a chain of command. We are military, and if there is anything wrong, it should be addressed through the right channels rather than going to the media and accusing.
“Not true’’
“We cannot continue to fight in the media. There are responsibilities that we need to handle at the ground level, ” he said.
“Our South Sudanese public needs to know [how] to consume the right information. We have the Joint Defense Board that is in command and control of all forces, in case of anything it is Lul Ruai who reports to myself or It is always better to find out the truth than talk to the media, ” said Col. Lam.
But the SSPDF Spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Lual Ruai, neither confirmed nor denied the arrest of the officers, saying “we heard about it but on social media,” without elaborating.
According to the reports of the peace monitoring mechanism, there have been cross defections among parties to the revitalised agreement this year, posing a threat to the ongoing slow peace implementation.
This year, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), noted with great concern that the defections could stifle the unification process, which could also translate into more roadblocks to peace processes.
“These growing defections and intercommunal violence could destabilise the permanent ceasefire and insufficient resources devoted to the training and redeployment of the NUF, with the potential to derail unification.” RJMEC’s report warned this year.