SPLM-IO welcome official’s defection to Machar camp

September 11, 2016 (BENTIU) – An official from South Sudan’s Unity State has welcomed the recent defection to the armed opposition faction of former Upper Nile state’s deputy governor, Maj. Gen John Ivo Mounto to the rebel movement.

David Jany Yak, a former Member of Parliament in Unity state said Mounto’s defection to the armed opposition faction came at the right moment.

“On behalf of Ruai Kuol Jal, the governor of Unity State and on my own behalf, I would like to outspread this congratulatory message to Cde. John Ivo Monto, the former deputy governor of Upper Nile state, for taking an astute decision in vacating the genocidal and tyrannical SPLM/A-IG,” he told Sudan Tribune by phone on Sunday.

The ex-deputy governor of Upper Nile state said he opted for the armed opposition movement to stay away from what he described as tribal politics by the Juba regime.

Yak said the armed opposition group led by first vice-president, Taban Deng Gai were in the wrong place.

He appealed to South Sudanese active politicians to follow his footstep for great change and big reform in the country.

The official claimed the people of South Sudan have lost hope in a country alienated by President Salva Kiir and the Jieng Council of Elders, who imposed divide and rule policy in the once peaceful counties of Greater Upper Nile region.

Mounto hails from the Borno tribe in Upper Nile’s Maban county.

(ST)