South Sudan rebels deny government forces besieged base
July 17, 2017 (JUBA) – South Sudan rebels loyal to former First Vice-President, Riek Machar dismissed as untrue reports that their headquarters were surrounded by pro-government forces, saying their forces are 25km away from Pagak, a town on South Sudan’s border with Ethiopia.
On Sunday, the army (SPLA), in collaboration with its allied forces, claimed they had besieged the rebels’ stronghold.
The rebels urged the public not to panic, describing the report as “wishful thinking” and “white propaganda” by the government to raise the morale of the defeated forces who attempted to occupy their positions in Mathiang and other areas.
“Please denounce the white propaganda that merciless forces of Salva Kiir claimed to have approached and surrounded Pagak GHQs[General Headquarters], by which force should they be able to surround Pagak GHQs?” further noted the statement.
The rebels are reportedly assembled in big numbers in Thocdeng “in order to dislodge this genocidal regime forces from their local trenches that they dug after they had learned that their cars wouldn’t come out from the buddy soil of Wichluakjak”.
“This dead regime forces will not step foot to either Maiwut or Pagak GHQs. The Lion heart commander Cdr. major General Khor Chuol Giet of division five (5) shall never allow them to move forward or back,” the statement adds.
Multiple sources told Sudan Tribune Sunday that the SPLA soldiers were a few kilometres from Pagak, a rebel base on South Sudan and Ethiopia.
Aid workers have also confirmed the clashes around Pagak, forcing some of them to flee to Gambella in Ethiopia after the town came under sustained air and ground attacks from the government forces.
About 5,000 civilians, the United Nations said, have fled their homes in Pagak.
The head of the U.N mission in South Sudan, David Shearer said last week that thousands of South Sudanese civilians were fleeing to neighbouring Ethiopia as government troops advanced towards Pagak, expressing grave concern over the growing refugee crisis.
“At least 25 aid workers have been forced to relocate from Pagak and surrounding areas due to increased insecurity,” said Shearer.
Stressing there was no military solution to the South Sudan conflict, the U.N official called upon the two warring factions to stop the fighting.
“It’s unacceptable that 250 innocent children, and the people who care for them, find themselves in no man’s land between the warring parties,” Shearer told reporters in the South Sudan capital, Juba.
The South Sudanese conflict started in mid-December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of a coup attempt. Since then, tens of thousands of people have died and over two million have been displaced.
(ST)