South Sudan security chief uses violence to oust Kiir, says SSUF leader

September 9, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s former army chief of staff and leader of the rebel South Sudan United Front (SSUF), said the director of the national security services used violence to cause an uprising against president Salva Kiir.

In a statement issued, on Thursday, Paul Malong Awan claimed Akol Koor Kuc, Director General of the Internal Bureau of the National Security Services, is supplying rebel factions in Upper Nile and Jonglei states with weapons to fight among themselves and sending soldiers to Mundri and Nimule -Juba Road to cause havoc that would exacerbate the situation with the view of angry and hurting civilians to go out and protest against Kiir’s administration.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, the South  Sudanese government on its part said that it is aware of the “ongoing crimes against humanity” on the roads and the destruction of civilian properties and the loss of lives.

“The impunity and attacks on the buses along Nimule roads are a national security-made disaster to fuel and continue ruling the country without elections”

“Beyond the insecurities in Nimule roads, the current events in the Upper Nile region that have made Fangak and Tonga the hub of conflict are being made by those who misled President Salva Kiir and armed the militia of Gen Johnson Olony Thubo to attack Gen Gatwech Dual’s military outpost; and take the lives of innocent living in the area” the statement added.

It further alleged that an ally to Kuc was seen discussing and supplying military supplies in the outskirts of Tonga, an area inhabited by ethnic Shilluk.

Security institutions, according to Awan, have created an absence of peace by masterminding violence to prevent the achievement of peace for the people of South Sudan.

He appealed to the region, continental bodies, and the international community to exert pressure on the government to stop hostilities and commit to pledges it made to bring peace with the holdout groups through the Rome peace process.

Kuc, according to the statement, was working against the peace process.

“On 30th August 2022, during the graduation of the unified forces, President Kiir gave a speech, where he calls for the resumption of the Rome Peace talks, and various areas in Bahr el Ghazal highways and armed pro-government militia groups in the Upper Nile region with the aim of attacking civilians and the blame the insecurities on SSOMA ( South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance)”, reads the statement.

The statement carrying the signature of Col Philip Deng Kuol Nguot, military spokesman of South Sudan United Front, commended the efforts of the African Union, IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), Troika countries comprising the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Norway for supporting the Rome peace process for supporting the people of South Sudan in their quest for peace and stability to prevail.

Security experts say that governments in weak states such as South Sudan often face an armed opposition and have to decide whether to try to accommodate and contain that adversary or to try to consolidate power and monopolize violence by disarming it.

Some security experts have used an infinite-horizon model to describe how the government in weak states in each period decides how much to offer the opposition and the rate at which it tries to consolidate its power.

The opposition, according to this view, can decide to accept the offer and thereby acquiesce to the government’s efforts to consolidate, or it can fight in an attempt to disrupt those efforts; In equilibrium, the government always tries to monopolize violence when it has “coercive power” against the opposition using coercive power.

Whether the government consolidates peacefully or through costly fighting depends on the size of any “contingent spoils,” which are benefits that begin to accrue from an increase in economic activity resulting from the monopolization of violence and the higher level of security that comes with it.

When contingent spoils are small, the government buys the opposition off and eliminates it as fast as is peacefully possible.

When contingent spoils are large, the government attempts to monopolize violence by militarily defeating the opposition.

(ST)