Adwok Nyaba bashes British envoys for ‘indulging to complicate’ Upper Nile dispute

JUBA – Former South Sudan minister of higher education and renowned writer, Peter Adwok Nyaba, has bashed at British envoys, Christ Trott, and Robert Fairweather, over comments related to the ongoing dispute over SPLM-IO gubernatorial nominee for Upper Nile state, General Johnson Olony, advising the two diplomats to “better have correct understanding” than complicating the problem.

What did the envoys say?

Earlier on Friday, Ambassador Trott, who is the British ambassador to South Sudan, wrote on Twitter of a meeting he had with communal chiefs from the Shilluk and Padang communities to discuss possibilities for compromise over the standstill dispute between the SPLM-IO and the SPLM-IG over General Johnson Olony who hails from the Shilluk community and who is not accepted by the Padang community.

“[I] Had frank discussions with Chiefs from both the Shilluk and Padang Dinka communities. Urged them to accept political compromises to allow Upper Nile to secure the dividends of peace,” Ambassador Trott wrote in a tweet, before mentioning Fairweather, the British special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.

The problem in UNS doesn’t with the chiefs. It’s the struggle for power and wealth among the political elite that should be tackled. Accredited diplomats better have correct understanding of situation before indulging to complicate it further.

— Peter Adwok Nyaba (@watpapit) December 12, 2020

In respond, Nyaba wrote that the “problem in UNS doesn’t [solve] with the chiefs. It’s the struggle for power and wealth among the political elite that should be tackled,” bashing at the British envoy that “Accredited diplomats better have correct understanding of [a] situation before indulging to complicate it further.”

There are ongoing land disputes between the Shilluk and the Padang created by the controversial 2015 establishment of 28 (now defunct) states by President Salva Kiir.

That dispute is complicating the appointment of a governor for the state, with the Padang community rejecting General Johnson Olony, arguing he would target them because of those disputes.