Machar using militias, violence to resolve SPLM-IO split – Gatwech

JUBA – South Sudan opposition leader General Simon Gatwech Dual who leads the faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Kitgwang has accused First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny of using violent means to resolve the ongoing tensions within the main armed opposition group.

Gatwech broke away from Machar in August after he attempted – along with General Johnson Olony Thabo and General Thomas Mabor Dhol – to remove Machar, a powerful opposition leader in South Sudan, as the leader of the main armed opposition group accusing him of nepotism and trading SPLM-IO agenda for positions in Juba.

In a statement, General Simon Gatwech’s group said it condemns what it called attempts by Machar to use violent means to resolve disagreements in the main armed opposition group and that Machar had attempted to assassinate General Simon Gatwech Dual, a claim Sudans Post cannot independently verify.

“We, therefore, condemn the attempts by the FVP to resolve the split in the SPLM/SPLA (IO) using violence and attempts by his allied militias to assassinate his former Chief of General Staff, First Lieutenant General, Simon Gatwech Dual,” General Gatwech said in a statement seen by Sudans Post

The insurgent group went on to accuse Machar of “nepotism and neglecting his fighters in the bush without access to basic needs, including food, medicine, shelter as well as safe and clean drinking water.”

“It is only through the implementation of the Security Arrangements as laid out in Chapter Two of the Revitalized Agreement, can we attain political stability in our land,” said the group in its position paper.

“While recognizing the natural right of self-defence, the primary objective of the Kit-Gwang Declaration is not to return the country to war. The fundamental objectives of the declaration are political.”