BREAKING | 5 army officers join Buay-Malong rebel group  

JUBA – At least five senior officers of South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) have defected in several states in the country to join the holdout opposition South Sudan United Front (SSUF/A) led by General Paul Malong Awan Anei and General Stephen Buay Rolnyang.

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, General Stephen Buay Rolnyang said from undisclosed location that the officers “defected from the SSPDF respective units along with their officers, NCOS and men and joined the SSUF/A, in response to my revolutionary call for a regime change in the country.”

“Our country is in a desperate situation which requires tough and truly radical solution to install a genuine democratic government with people-driven permanent constitution,” Buay who was a senior army commander until 2019 when he was stripped of his rank and dismissed from the army service said.

General Stephen Buay Rolnyang defected to the General Malong-led rebel group in May. The South Sudan United Front (SSUF/A) is not a signatory to the revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018 by President Salva Kiir and a number of rebel groups.

Following his defection, General Stephen Buay accused Kiir’s security advisor and some unnamed members of the National Congress Party of Sudan of misleading the president; something he said has led to the collapse of the world’s youngest country.

“The situation in our country is characterized by rampant corruption, cattle raiding, revenge killing, rape, robbery, inter – communal violence, lack of freedom of expression, lack of political and democratic space and inhumane treatment of political dissidents by national security forces which the regime is incapable of handling them,” Buay added.

He said the “only hope for our masses was the revitalized peace agreement which has already been sabotaged and undermined by the regime in order to further its stay in power for an indefinite period of time.”

He the senior opposition commander urged the remaining South Sudan People’s Defense Force soldiers to abandon the government and join Malong for a complete system overhaul which he said will change their life for good.

“I urges the rest of the SSPDF forces wherever they are to follow suit and stand with our masses who have been abandoned to unenviable fates as the regime doesn’t care of their suffering. Let us take advantage of general feelings of dislike among the masses towards the despotic regime,” he said.

The officers who defected include Lt.Col Chierey James Geeh  who defected from the army’s 4^th infantry division in Unity state, Lt. Col Thon Achuilau Dong who defected from Lakes state, Major Chipak Karay Gai  who defected from the army’s 1^st infantry division in Renk, Capt. Nyah Wicyoak who defected from the Mayom Special Operation Forces in Unity state and Capt Chan Deng Ring who defected from special force in the capital Juba.

It remains unclear how many forces have defected with the officers.