SPLM-IO denies that Gen Juma was one of its commanders
August 4, 2017 (JUBA) -South Sudan rebel (SPLM-IO) led by the ex-First Vice President Riek Machar Friday denied claims by Robert Leo Juma he was a Brigadier General in the group before to join the newly established National Salvation Front (NAS).
“The SPLA-IO is dismayed by the claim of a certain Robert Juma that he defected from SPLM-IO to join NAS. The SPLA IO brigade in that area is called Special Brigade, commanded by Gen. John Tongun,” said Col. Lam Paul Gabriel deputy spokesman of SPLA-IO on Friday.
The announcement was seen as a manoeuvre from NAS to bring the SPLA-IO fighters in the Equatoria to join the ranks of the new group under the leadership of Lt. General Thomas Cirillo Swaka.
Col. Gabriel has further accused Juma of seeking to destabilise the rebel group and to encourage its members to desert the armed struggle.
In addition, he slammed the NAS rebels accusing them of not focusing on specific agenda on regime change in South Sudan, adding that their misbehaviour is fuelling other conflicts.
Since NAS’s inception last March, the SPLM-IO sees this group as a threat to its strategy aiming to forge a national alternative with the support of South Sudanese in the Greater Equatoria region against the “tribal regime in Juba”.
NAS, which is formed by Equatorians, seeks to recruit its elements in the Greater Equatoria where the SPLM-IO has its fighters and partisans.
Gabriel said the armed opposition led by the former first vice president welcomes any coalition of armed groups that aim to achieve regime change. Also, he warned against seeking to empower the regime in Juba.
“SPLA-IO forces and their leadership do not have any problem with NAS recruiting but they should desist from insulting SPLM/A IO and its leadership yet they are trying to establish bases inside SPLA-IO control areas,” he stressed.
“Demobilizing SPLA-IO forces does not mean a win for NAS but rather a miscalculation that puts the government in Juba at an advantage over the suffering South Sudanese in the refugee camps, the IDP camps, and other places. We can’t rival about who controls Central Equatoria by words but action”.
(ST)