Senior police commander quits, joins Machar’s SPLA-IO

BENTIU – A senior South Sudan police commander has resigned and decided to join the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by the country’s First Vice-President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, saying the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit lacks political will for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement signed by Kiir and Machar in 2018.

In a statement on December 25, Brigadier General Samuel Machuol Nguen who was working as a government representative to the Joint Transitional Security Committee (JTSC), a peace mechanism created by the revitalized peace agreement, said the SPLM-IO which is also a signatory to the deal, is the only hope for the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“I would like to inform the general public that I Brigadier gen, Samuel Machuol Nguen as of today 25/12/2020 do hereby declare my defection from SPLM-IG to SPLM-IO. The reason of my defection was due to the lack of political will exhibited by SPLM-IG to implement the agreement,” the police officer said in the statement extended to Sudans Post.

“The SPLM-IO remains the only hope and the engine of change for the people of south Sudan. Therefore I decided to join them and be part of change the people of south Sudan need,” he added in the statement dated December 25.

The latest high-level defection comes more than a week after a regional meeting of the IGAD heads of state and government called on peace partners to cease defection which the regional bloc said hampers the implementation of the deal.