Ex-SPLA-IO operation commander resigns to join Cirilo in protest to peace deal that ‘maintain status quo’

JUBA – A senior South Sudan main armed opposition commander who was the group’s operation force commander in Central Equatoria state has resigned from the group, and has criticized the revitalized peace agreement signed by the SPLM-IO with the government in September 2018 as something that was designed to maintain the status quo in the world’s youngest country.

Colonel Emmanuel Wani Masco said in a statement extended to Sudans Post that he along more than 100 service members of the group were switching side to the holdout opposition National Salvation Front (NAS) led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka who withdrew from Khartoum peace talks that led to the revitalized peace agreement in 2018 over government monopoly of talks.

“I Col. Emmanuel Wani Masco, hereby declare my resignation from SPLA/M-IO under the leadership of Dr. Riek Machar Teny with immediate effect [along] with my forces,” the opposition commander said in a statement dated February 13, 2020.

“The 2018 R-ARCISS, did not address the root causes of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. The agreement failed to be implemented as there is no unification of forces, no peace, no state governments formed and no legislatures reconstituted due to lack of political will. The Agreement maintained status quo to continue oppressing and looting the downtrodden people of South Sudan,” he pointed out.

Masco said the revitalized peace deal which is struggling to hold over lack of political will from the parties is a surrender to the regime asserting that it was meant for division of positions among the country’s political elites instead of addressing the grievance of the people of South Sudan most of whom are living in refugee and IDP camps within and abroad.

“The Revitalized Agreement is a surrender in disguise, as it focused on allocating elites positions rather than resolving the people’s problems due to the above reasons and more,” he said. “I and my 132 forces attached have joined the revolutionary forces of the National Salvation Front/Army, committed to addressing the root causes of conflict, standing and defending the restoration of unity, dignity and the power to the people of South Sudan, under the wise and able leadership of NAS C-in-C and Chairman Gen. Thomas Cirilo Swaka.”