SPLA advancing in search of David Yau Yau
May 23, 2013 (BOR) – South Sudan’s armed forces – the SPLA – say that after retaking Boma town from rebels in recent days they are advancing in search of the David Yauyau leader of the rebellion in Jonglei’s Pibor county.
On Wednesday, South Sudan minster of defense, John Koang Nyuon, army officials and Jonglei governor, Kuol Manyang Juuk, made a short visit to Boma town.
A source who used the same flight to Boma and back to Bor, confirmed the presence of South Sudan’s deputy defense minster, Majak Agoot, and the SPLA’s chief of staff, James Hoth Mai, in Boma town to inspect offensive operation against the renegade.
It is not clear how long stayed in Boma, which has strategic and historical importance as the first town to be taken by the SPLA after it was formed in May 1983. After decades of civil war South Sudan became independent in 2011 with the SPLA becoming the national army.
A rebel group in Unity state recently accepted the offer of an amnesty by South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, but Yauyau’s South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM) have rejected the offer.
Jonglei’s governor Kuol Manyang Juuk, who briefed the press on his return from Boma, said the SPLA had also retaken control of Marua town, which is located in a national park from Yauau’s forces on Wednesday morning.
The “SPLA has liberated the town from the forces of David Yau Yau”, he said, adding that “the town was ransacked by the rebels”.
“Maruo is now under firm control of our forces, the SPLA, and David Yauyau and his forces have fled”, governor Manyang explained at Bor airport on Thursday.
According to the governor the SSDM are not a proper fighting force, claiming that they were just civilians who David Yauyau had given ammunition to, adding that Yauyau was “making them to fight his own war”.
The number of dead and wounded from the fighting in Maruo is not yet know, but eyewitnesses, who travelled with the governor said they counted the 30 dead bodies on the side of the rebels.
The governor said that houses that belong to civilians had been looted and burned. Stores where food was stored in by NGOs had also been looted, he said.
Yauyau has called for a new state in South Sudan for marginalised ethnic groups such as his own Murle community as well as the Anuak, Jie and Kachipo. After an armed group, suspected to have been linked to Yauyau attacked a convoy consisting of the Anuak King this month senior members of that community strongly denied that they wanted anything to do with the SSDM’s demands.
Following his trip governor Manyang said that Yauyau’s claims to be recruiting from outside his own Murle tribe were a “total lie” saying that he met local chiefs in Boma, who assured him that they did not want any part in Yauyau’s rebellion or his demands.
The Jie and Kachipo chiefs and members of the the army in Boma “are now calling the people to come back homes, the civilians ran to the mountain when the rebel took the town”, said the governor.
Addressing the members of the Murle community who had joined the rebellion, the governor urged them to “settle, send their children to schools” and concentrate on agriculture.
He admitted that Boma itself had been neglected during colonial rule, while governed by Khartoum and even since South Sudan gained self rule in 2005.
“We are calling upon politicians from Murle community to appeal for the Murle people, especially civilians to disassociate themselves from Yauyau. We know they are civilians, they should not fight the war of Yau Yau, Let them go back after their cattle and be peaceful.”
Yauyau rebelled against South Sudan’s ruling party – the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) after elections – in April 2010 when, as an independent candidate, he lost his campaign to represent the Gumuruk–Boma constituency in Pibor County at the Jonglei State Assembly.
(ST)