SPLA will not withdraw from Juba Streets if coup rumours continue

April 28, 2017 (JUBA) – On Friday, the South Sudanese army said it would continue to camp and patrol the streets of the Juba, until the fear of the rumours of the peddling coup allegations stopped.

“The South Sudan Liberation Army (SPLA) forces and other organised security forces will not pull out from the streets until the roots of the coup allegation are stemmed from the source. The organised forces will not leave unless the destabilising rumours stop,” said Col. Santo Domic on Friday.

The military spokesman said the army and other organised forces had been deployed to provide the adequate security and protection to the civilians in town, along with their property.

Domic described the reports that claimed that President Salva Kiir wanted to step down from power allowing the army to take over as a lie, a “deliberate and calculated campaign of calumny aimed at misleading the public and cause disaffection between the civil population and the troops.”

The general command wished to emphatically state that no such plan had been put place.

“Above all, the SPLA remains committed to providing aid to civil authority as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan and wishes to assure the public of the Chief of Army staff’s unalloyed commitment to protect lives and property whenever called upon to do so in line with extant provisions of the law,” added the Col. Domic.

The Col. went on to reassure the people of South Sudan that the SPLA remained a national institution that emphasised peace, unity and mutual coexistence regardless of and religious, ethnic or tribal differences.

He continued to add “any attempt by any individual or group of persons to associate the military and indeed the SPLA with such will be a total waste of time, energy and resources. We are proud professionals bound by discipline, unflinching love, loyalty, esprit-de-corps and love for our colleagues and our country.”

Col. Santo Domic warned the mischief makers to desist their unpatriotic acts.

(ST)