Sudan arrests South Sudanese rebels for purchasing military uniform

February 2, 2020 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s paramilitary force of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Sunday arrested four members of the South Sudanese armed opposition group National Salvation Movement (NAS).

In a statement issued about their arrest, the RSF said the four members of the rebel group were involved in the procurement of 150 military uniforms.

The four NAS members are indicted of “disturbing security and safety, purchasing uniforms and military insignia, stirring up war against the state, transnational organized crime, sabotage and war, disturbing relations with South Sudan and working to create tensions between the two countries (…),” further said the RSF spokesman Jamal Juma.

Juma said they had intelligence reports that they were in Khartoum to buy military uniforms of the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces and to smuggle it overland to South Sudan.

The statement quoted Sabit Kwang Gai, who was identified as a major general in the armed opposition group saying that he was assigned to obtain 300 military uniforms of the Sudanese regular forces for their fighters who are based in the Upper Nile region, close to the Sudanese border.

Thomas Cirilo NAS’s chairman and other holdout opposition leaders have agreed to resume peace talks with the South Sudanese government under the meditation of Sant’ Egidio Catholic peace organization.

NAS which is mainly active in the Greater Equatoria region of South Sudan, in August 2019 formed On August 30 the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), a large alliance gathering groups that reject the revitalized peace agreement.

(ST)