Gatwech, Olony invited to visit Juba for confidence-building tour – Tutkew  

JUBA – South Sudan’s presidential security advisor and the government chief mediator with holdout SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction, Tutkew Gatluak Manimeh, has said that former SPLA-IO chief of staff and leader of the SPLM-IO Kitgwang faction Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, and his deputy Gen. Johnson Olony Thabo have been invited to visit South Sudan’s capital Juba.

Both Olony and Gatwech last saw Juba around December 2013, and have since been fighting the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit. The two men split from the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny in August to form a separate faction of their own.

Previously, Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual has criticized First Vice President Machar of surrendering to the government only to be protected by President Salva Kiir’s ‘Mathiang Anyoor’ saying he should not have left his forces outside to be protected by President Salva Kiir Mayardit whom he described in several occasions as enemies.

Speaking to Sudans Post’s Nancy Abdelrahman in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday, Gatluak said the government has extended an invitation to General Simon Gatwech Dual and General Johnson Olony Thabo to visit Juba in an attempt to try to build confidence between the parties saying they will be accompanied by a Sudanese delegation should they decide to agree.

“They have been invited to visit Juba by H.E President Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the State of South Sudan so that the government build confidence with them and this will be a very huge step and the government of the state of South Sudan is responsible of their security and they will of course be accompanied by a Sudanese delegation,” he said.