Rebels urge civilians in Bahr el Ghazal to not panic as war gains momentum
June 8, 2015 (JUBA) – Youth leadership of the South Sudanese armed opposition faction of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) led by former vice president, Riek Machar, urged the civil populations in Bahr el Ghazal region, home to president Salva Kiir, not to panic as rebels began to intensify war to depose the president and called on the fighters to take the war to Warrap state.
“These so-called liberators in Juba have indeed become the colonisers of our people and so there is a strong need for second liberation,” he told Sudan Tribune on Monday.
The opposition youth leader called on the civil populations to not fear their fighters, explaining that they were only engaging forces loyal to president Salva Kiir in the area and so target government institutions.
He cited recent developments in Achana, a strategic area on the supply route linking Northern Bahr el Ghazal and the rest of the states in the country and to the neighbouring states in Sudan in which they released several captured chiefs of the area, including a payam administrator, Elijah Noon.
“This is to inform them (civilians) that we are there to liberate them and not to harm anyone in those areas we are operating in. The engagement will be limited to areas occupied by government forces only,” Riiny further explained.
He dismissed reports alleging that the opposition fighters under the overall command of General Dau Aturjong in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, home to the current South Sudanese army’s chief of general staff, General Paul Malong Awan, were receiving foreign support in form of weapons and mercenaries to fight on their side.
“This is not true. There are no foreign forces fighting on our side. The forces are 100% South Sudanese. Our forces are purely South Sudanese sons and daughters. We are therefore urging our people to be patient and remain calm as we are trying our best to free them from the fangs of oppressors,” he said.
TAKE WAR TO WARRAP STATE
Riiny urged the youth to join the struggle and also take the war to president Salva Kiir’s home area of Warrap state, arguing that the president did not feel the horrors of the war because his home area was not affected by the current violence as his relatives were not displaced.
“I urge our youth in greater Bahr el Ghazal and elsewhere in the country to join the movement in earnest so that all of us fight together to liberate this country from the bondage of dictatorship, nepotism, corruption, incompetence and genocidal acts by taking the war closer to the bases of these belligerents because until that is done, they will not know the country is at war,” Riiny further stressed.
He was echoing other similar voices in the past who allegedly said president Kiir’s tribal leadership cared less about war being fought in greater Upper Nile region as this was destroying and displacing the people and properties of populations in Upper Nile far from his home area.
Rebels claim that they were gaining momentum in taking the war to greater Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions in the final push to put pressure on president Kiir to step aside or fully commit to the peace process.
(ST)