SSUF/A leader expels five members, downplays ouster

January 28, 2023 (NAIROBI) – The leader of South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A), Gen. Paul Malong Awan has expelled five senior members of the group.

Malong, in a statement issued Saturday, said those expelled had been engaging President Salva Kiir’s government in violation of SSUF/A’s constitution.

“It has been brought to my attention that, the aforementioned SSUF/A members are engaged in a myriad and countless misconduct in contravention and violations of articles 7.2 and 7.3 (SSUF/A Constitution) and chapter 2: SSUF/A Code of Conduct,” the statement reads in part.

It added, “The following facts have been established against the expelled members, your decision in engaging in side negotiations with a regime is a breach of the Code of Conduct for the movement. With your approach to entry into negotiations with the Juba regime is a betrayal and conspiracy from you to weaken SSUF/A and as a futile attempt to undermine the leadership, which prompted this end to take this decision”.

The former army chief of staff described the behaviour of those expelled as “unacceptable and inappropriate”.

A group of SSUF/A officers earlier said they had removed Malong from his post.

They accused Malong of “incompetence and lacking diplomatic capacity to advance interests of the group due to international sanctions imposed on him by the United States, Canada, European Union, and the United Kingdom in relation to the South Sudanese civil war.

But Malong, formerly an ally of President Kiir, dismissed the group’s claims.

“In light of this gross misconduct, that I Gen. Paul Malong Awan, Chairman and Commander in Chief of SSUF/A duly informed by these facts ordered the expulsion of the above cited members from the rank and file of the South Sudan United Front/Army according to article 20.7 of the Constitution,” he said in his January 28 statement.

“All movement officers are hereby to regard those members as persona non grata on all SSUF/A premises; and to adjudge them as strangers in the Movement,” it added.

(ST)