Malong’s group says Cirilo has broken away from SSOMA at peace talks in Rome  

ROME – The South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A) led by General Paul Malong Awan has said that South Sudan National Democratic Alliance (SSNDA) led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka has broke away from South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), and is holding parallel talks with the government delegation in Rome.

Nyamach Nyang Chol, the spokesperson for the Malong-led movement, told Sudans Post this evening from Rome that they haven’t seen each other with the group led by General Thomas Cirilo saying the SSUF/A and the Real -SPLM, all of which are founding members of the SSOMA, are negotiating with the government delegation separately, which she said is the case for General Cirilo’s group.

The senior opposition official said they had expressed interest in the unity of the holdout opposition Alliance and called for Cirilo’s group to return to the Alliance, but said the other group has turned down their pledge for Unity of the SSOMA.

“As I speak to you right now I am in Rome with SSUF and Real SPLM. We are on course with the talks. And we have not seen eye-to-eye with the other group,” she said, referring to the group led by Cirilo.

“So, we don’t know how they’re progressing and prior to our coming to Rome, we wrote to Sant’Egidio that we are happy to reconcile with them and welcome them back to SSOMA if they wish so, but it seems they don’t,” she said, adding that “They broke away from SSOMA and since then we have not seen eye-to-eye with them.”

The group led by General Thomas Cirilo insists that they are the SSOMA having revoked memberships of Malong and that of Pagan Amum.

Nyamach dismissed this and said one group cannot be an alliance.

” The group of Thomas Cirilo cannot call themselves an alliance or SSOMA, because they are just one group and an alliance has to consist of two or more groups. So, if the Real SPLM and SSUF are still together, that means we are the Alliance and we are the SSOMA, we have been referred to as SSOMA, that’s how the international community are addressing us, that is how the Sant’Egidio is addressing us, and that is how the government delegation is addressing us as well,” she said.

“I don’t know why the group of Thomas Cirilo is calling itself SSOMA. Obviously they are not an alliance, but we teh alliance are on course with teh talks,” she added.