JUBA – Fierce fighting has erupted this morning in Tonja of Upper Nile state with General Simon Gatwech Dual, the leader of the breakaway SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction, accusing forces loyal to First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny of triggering the fight by attacking their base.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Alfred Gach Thot, the spokesman of the SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction, said SPLA-IO forces commanded by General Jok Kuach in Phow crossed the river Nile and attacked their forces based in Tonja of Upper Nile state.
“This morning on 5/ 12/2022 at 5.00 AM, the SPLA-IO none-unified forces of Riek Machar under the command of Gen. Jok Kuach in Phow attacked the SPLA-IO Kitgwang Declaration military base in Tonja,” he said in the statement extended to Sudans Post.
The senior holdout opposition officer further said that fighting was still ongoing and that SPLA-IO forces were ordered to cross the Nile by General Nhial Kuol, the force commander in Phow of Fangak County, to attack them.
“The attackers were made to cross the river where they came from by the SPLA-IO KD under the command of Gen. Nhial Kuol,” he added.
Several attempts by Sudans Post to contact the SPLA-IO spokesman were unsuccessful.
‘MASSACRE’
The latest fresh fighting comes despite calls by civil society activists for the parties involved in the ongoing violence in the oil-rich Upper Nile to stop war and use peaceful means such as dialogue to resolve grievances.
Last week, armed civilians from Jonglei State’s Fangak and Ayod County (known as Gawaar White Army) attacked several villages and an IDP camp inside Panyikang County killing at least 3000 civilians, according to a senior local government official.
The Coordinator of Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in Fashoda County Paul Awin said elements of the White Army attacked several areas including the camp hosting thousands of displaced civilians at Aburoc and narrated a ‘massacre’ of 3000 innocent civilians.
“The estimated figures that I can say regarding the death, it can be more than three thousand because people are still checking,” he told the media this week.
“After they finish in Kudok Payam, they also proceed to Dethouk Payam where is the higher population of the IDPs, so the attacker they went there and start shooting on those IDPs, this is where a lot of population of Dethouk Payam lost their lives,” he added.
‘POTENTIAL GENOCIDE’
Prominent activist Edmund Yakani who is the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) also warned that ongoing violence against civilians may amount to war crimes or genocide and called on Gatwech and Olony to immediately stop it.
“The forces of SPLA-IO Kitgwang under General Gatwech Dual and the Nuer white and those forces of General Johnson Olony of Agwelek are seriously engaged in acts against communities and these acts may constitute genocide in the eye of international community. Despite those attacks, the state capacity to protect civilians is weak and UNMISS intervention is needed,” Yakani said in a statement extended to Sudans Post this morning.
“The war between Simon Gatwech and Johnson Olony is totally a funded proxy war which is senseless apart from been supported to only create crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations and sexual violence against women and girls. This ongoing violence are like any other ethnic violence across the global that requires urgent response of the government or international community,” he stressed.
CEPO further urged General Gatwech and General Olony to stop the fighting and use peaceful mean such as dialogue to resolve their grievances instead of committing crimes against civilians in Upper Nile state.
“CEPO is urging Simon Gatwech and Johnson Olony to immediately ceasefire and opt for dialogue for sorting out their political differences without committing crimes and gross human rights violations on the civil population in some parts of Upper Nile state,” he said.
