Juba, South Sudan
September 2,2021—The Former Secretary General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), Hon. Tingo Peter, has declared his allegiance to the Kitgwang Declaration under the leadership of the 1st Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual.
Tingo who resigned his position last year as the then Secretary General of the SPLM/A-IO citing lack of vision and clear direction from the opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar, has on Tuesday, 31st of August 2021, endorsed Gen Gatwech’s leadership.
In a statement extended to Nyamilepedia, Tingo and other senior officials announced their decision and pledged their maximum support to the Kitgwang group in preference to Machar’s led smaller group in the capital, Juba.
“We the under mentioned former members of the SPLM/A-IO who resigned earlier from Dr. Riek Machar’s led administration would like to register our full support for the decision taken in the Kitgwang-Magenis, declaration to remove Dr. Riek Machar Teny from the Chairmanship and Commander-In-Chief of the SPLM/A-IO, we would like to reiterate once again our fully support as we stated on the 15th of July 2021 prior to Kitgwang Declaration”, the statement reads by part.
According to the former SG, Kitgwang Declaration is a patriotic decision and must be supported.
“We highly appreciate the patriotic decision taken by armed forces of the SPLA/M-IO”, the statement added.
The former opposition members also applauded Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual for naming Henry Odwar as head of the political office of the SPLM/A-IO Magenis faction and asked for a constant cooperation between politicians and military council.
The names of the senior opposition members who have pledged their full political allegiance to Magenis based SPLM/A-IO along with Tingo Peter are identified as “Pasquale Clement Batali, former member of Political Bureau, Yor Juma, Former member of Political Bureau, Dr. Victor Bazilo, former member of National Liberation Council and Cde. Viola Joseph, former member of the National Liberation Council.
On August 4, 2021 the former SPLM/SPLA-IO Chief of Staff 1st. Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual announced that he ousted the Chairman and commander-in-chief of the SPLM/A-IO, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, who is now in Juba as the First Vice President and installed himself as the leader of the main opposition group.
Responding to Gen. Gatwech, Dr. Machar termed his removal as illegal and described the Kitgwang Declaration categorically as work of “peace spoilers whose mission is to derail the peace implementation”.
So far, many former and alienated members of the SPLM/A-IO and many chapters in diaspora have declared their support to Kitgwang Declaration and pledged to continue the resistance that Machar seems to have given up on in preference for “peace implementation”.
