Gen. Tito Biel tells Machar to hand over weapons left at SPLA-IO base in Bentiu or risk attack

JUBA – South Sudan main armed opposition commander General Tito Biel Wich who defected from the SPLA-IO to join South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) last month has asked SPLM-Io chairman Dr. Riek Machar Teny  to hand over weapons and ammunition that he had left at Dingding cantonment site in Bentiu or risk an attack.

In early February, Gen. Biel defected from the SPLA-IO supposedly to join the leader of the breakaway SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction, but ended up joining the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces and accused Machar, who is also the country’s First Vice President, of turning the group into a family business.

Since then, there have been speculations that he was planning multiple attack on several SPLA-IO bases and cantonment sites in many parts of Unity State including Dingding, a designated cantonment site housing opposition forces allied to Machar just outside Bentiu, the capital of the oil-rich Unity State.

In a statement extended to Sudans Post on Monday, a spokesman belonging to General Tito Biel said they don’t plan to attack Dingding Cantonment site, but would want Machar to handover weapons and ammunition belonging to them peacefully, failure of which he said would result in the use of force to take them.

“It’s of great pity to learn the current situation perpetually set by rumours circulators that we are sending our soldiers to Dingding cantonment site to collect our left behind artillery, Sacristan Zoal Wal, Gen. Biel’s Press Secretary, said in the strong-worded statement.

“The news generating panic at Dingding isn’t part of our plan. It’s a guessed opinion that we may at any time seek to collect our left behind weapons, but we need them brought to us in a peaceful way,” he added.

“Things that will bring us to difference aren’t going to appear from our side but instead rejecting the path on which we direct you to walk upon.

“On the military platform, things said are not reminded. If not implemented, find other means possible for it to easily be understood. What splitted us wasn’t you, but the entire administration, and as such, we haven’t got any area of differences yet. If we must have! We have got them yet. Feel free at your base! Don’t lose any sleep. We’re not harmful.”