NAS not party to joint military command structure: spokesperson

October 25, 2022 (NAIROBI) – The opposition National Salvation Front (NAS) is not party proposals for establishment of a joint military command structure, its spokesperson said.

Gen. Stephen Buay Rolynyang, leader of a rebel group operating in Unity State, proposed the formation of unified fronts in Equatoria, Upper Nile and the Bhar el Ghazal regions.

“NAS has taken note of the content of the letter of Gen. Stephen Buay Rolynyang, the C-in-C of the SSPM/A expressing his opinion on the need of having a military alliance,” said the spokesperson for NAS, Suba Samuel Manase.

He said the hold-out group was neither consulted nor has it discussed anything with Gen. Stephen Buay Rolynyang about his proposal on the formation of the military command.

“NAS, therefore is not party to his [Rolynyang] proposal,” noted Manase.

The group’s spokesperson, however, said NAS is committed to the new road-map by the National Consensus Forum (NCF) towards convening a roundtable conference of all South Sudanese stakeholders, political parties, civil society groups, faith-based groups, women and youth groups to address root causes of the conflict in South Sudan.

“NAS is a movement with structures, such as the Salvation Council (SC) and Military Command (MC) These structure perform different functions and roles, including provision of guidance and direction to NAS leadership on strategic issues like working together with other opposition groups and making alliances,” it noted.

NAS is one of the groups that did not join the September 2018 peace agreement.

(ST)