Activist Yakani welcomes deployment of troops to quell Upper Nile violence

JUBA — South Sudan’s prominent civil society activist Edmund Yakani has welcomed the announcement by the presidency that the SSPDF chief of defense forces has been directed by President Salva Kiir to deploy troops to Upper Nile state’s conflict hotspots to quell violence and protect civilians.

In a statement this evening, the presidency said Kiir who is also the commander in chief of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces directed the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Gen. Santino Deng Wol to deploy troops to parts of Upper Nile state to protect civilians and stop violence.

In reaction, Yakani who who had earlier called for president’s to stop the conflict welcomed the move and stressed that what is happening there is a crime against humanity.

“CEPO welcomes the immediate response of the president to the call made for an immediate responses to prevention of the killing of civilians by the Kitgwang group and Agwelek forces and what is taking place in Fasado and other parts of Upper Nile state is crime agonist humanity,” he said.

Yakani who is also the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) further called on rebel commanders Gen. Simon Gatwech Dial and Gen. Johnson Olony Thabo to stop violence and use peaceful means to address their grievances.

“I call upon Gatwech and Johnson to opt for dialogue in sorting their political grievances without waging war against each other. Their fightings is chasing absolute gross human rights violations,” he said.

President Kiir on Tuesday said during a meeting of the SPLM National Liberation Council that he cannot stop the violence in Upper Nile state, saying that those fighting are brothers.

The statement sparked a huge public outrage and the presidency media unit immediately issued a statement saying that the president was quoted out of context by media houses and that he meant to say that he cannot solve the conflict alone.

Yakani welcomed the clarification and stated that “the statement published quoting the president of the republic as saying that ‘I can’t stop fighting in Upper Nile’ was disturbing and it is better that it is officially clarified.”