Unity state: Gatdet’s forces clashes with SPLA in Mayom County
By Bonifacio Taban Kuich
April 19, 2011 (BENTIU) – Hundreds of civilians were displaced on Tuesday in Mayom County as a result of clashes between the South Sudan army (SPLA) and militia loyal to Peter Gatdet, Unity state officials say.
Unity state’s government led by governor Taban Deng Gai strongly condemned the attacks it said were carried out by Gatdet’s militia in in Guong Payam [district] in Mayom County on Tuesday afternoon. Authorities alleged that Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) was sponsoring rebellions in oil-rich Unity state.
Oil-producing South Sudan is due to separate from the North in July following a referendum vote overwhelmingly in favour of secession earlier this year. The poll was part of a 2005 peace deal between former rebels the SPLA and Khartoum.
Gatdet fought against the SPLA, backed by Khartoum, for much of the two decade long conflict. He integrated the SPLA in 2006 but he declared on April 11 that he planned to overthrow the southern government complaining of corruption and bad governance.
State minister of Information and Communication Gideon Gatpan Thoar speaking on local radio condemned the “barbaric attack” in Guong payam of Mayom County, which saw villages completely destroyed.
He added that the Unity state government had tried on many occasions to have dialogue with the Khartoum government to track down the militia activities between the neighboring South Kordofan and Unity but no solution had ever reached.
Thoar said the NCP had illegally built up militias in South Kordofan, by allocating them to the Division 5 Hakdana and Division 14 base of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), north Sudan’s official army.
The Unity state spokesman said that his government’s response would be to immediately withdraw all northern workers out of Unity state. He said that northern workers on Unity state’s oil fields would begin being evacuated on April 19.
He however added that security would be provided to the northern oil-workers as well as local and international staff.
Oil-rich Unity state has been experiencing attacks from a number of armed militias. The Southern ruling party, the SPLM, alleges Khartoum is funding rebel groups in an effort to destabilize the south before it achieves independence on July 9. The NCP have always denied such allegations.
Before his rebellion Gatdet was the deputy commander of the SPLA division in Northern Bhar –El-Gazal. He quit the SPLA last month to take up arms against the Government of South Sudan, claiming it is corrupt and dominated by the Dinka ethnic group. Gatdet is from South Sudan’s second largest ethnic group the Nuer.
The rebel South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) is reported to have taken control of Guong Payam [district] of Mayom County on Tuesday after heavy fighting with the SPLA.
Two SPLA drivers died and four were killed by landmines in Unity state on Tuesday. The landmines exploded under four SPLA trucks on the Mayom-Abiemhnom road, Major General Koang Chuol, head of SPLA operations for division 4 in Unity state told Sudan Tribune.
The spokesman of the SSLA, Bol Gatkuoth Kol, a former MP in the southern parliament, confirmed that his group had planted the mines and said that the attack was a warning for the citizens to move away from Mayom town before real conflict begins.
He said the SSLA had planted mines across Unity State and especially in Mayom County, which he says is the first territory the SSLA plans to control.
Kol said that the mine explosions were not an accident but a militarily operation to warn SPLA forces in the area that war has been declared against South Sudan’s army.
(ST)