SSPDF base near Ayod captured by SPLA-IO amid widening conflict

BOR – South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) on Monday captured a South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) military base at Waw Payam in Ayod County, Jonglei State, residents and opposition officials said, marking the latest setback for government forces as fighting spreads across the country’s east and north.

The garrison, located at Waw Payam headquarters (here 8°15’15.57″N 31°22’19.41″E) and roughly 15 kilometers north of Ayod town, fell in the early hours of Sunday, according to local residents who reported seeing government troops withdrawing from Waw arriving to Ayod town, the county headquarters.

In a brief statement, SPLA-IO spokesperson Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel said opposition forces had taken control of the base without major fighting.

“The SSPDF base in Waw Payam, Ayod County, Jonglei State has peacefully fallen to the SPLA-IO forces this morning,” Lam said in a post shared on social media, without providing further details on casualties or equipment seized.

Residents in Ayod County said they witnessed SSPDF soldiers arriving in Ayod town shortly after dawn, suggesting an organized withdrawal from Waw Payam rather than a prolonged confrontation.

“We saw soldiers coming into Ayod early in the morning, some on foot and others in vehicles,” said a resident of Ayod town, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “People here believe they withdrew from Waw Payam during the night.”

The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The capture of the Waw Payam base follows a series of rapid advances by the Machar-led opposition in recent days. Two days earlier, the SPLA-IO announced that its forces had taken full control of Greater Akobo, including the seizure of SSPDF positions in Waat and Yuai, both strategically significant locations in Jonglei State.

The latest development also comes hours after the opposition said it had captured an SSPDF garrison in northern Unity State near the Sudanese border, highlighting the growing geographic spread of clashes between the two forces.

South Sudan appears to be sliding back toward widespread conflict more than seven years after the signing of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, which had brought a fragile period of relative calm following the country’s brutal civil war.

The peace deal began to unravel in March, when First Vice President Riek Machar, leader of the SPLA-IO, was detained by the government and later placed on trial.

His arrest followed heavy fighting between the SPLA-IO-linked White Army militia and SSPDF forces, during which a senior army brigade commander was killed along with more than 250 other soldiers, according to the government.

Machar has since been suspended from his position pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

Political analysts and regional observers have warned that the detention of senior opposition figures, including SPLA-IO acting chief of staff General Gabriel Duop Lam, risks collapsing the already-strained peace process and triggering a broader return to civil war.