Gen. Biel’s forces postpone attack on SPLA-IO base in Bentiu

JUBA – A senior South Sudan main armed opposition SPLA-IO intelligence officer is telling Sudans Post that forces belonging to General Tito Biel Wich who defected to the SSPDF last month have postponed their attack on Dingding and retreated westward, days after Gen. Biel threatened to attack the SPLA-IO cantonment site.

Last week, General Biel said he was sending an expedition to ‘disarm’ SPLA-IO forces at a designated cantonment site in Dingding claiming that the group has refused to hand over weapons and ammunition that the controversial former opposition commander had left behind when he defected to the SSPDF.

A week earlier, a force of about 150 soldiers launched attack on Kaljak Payam, but was defeated, sparking an SPLM-IO outcry in Juba in which the group suspended its participation in joint security mechanisms tasked with overseeing the implementation of the security arrangements.

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, the intelligence officer who requested not to be named said forces of General Biel who were sent off to attack Kaljak Payam before proceeding to Dingding Cantonment site have been ordered to retreat after it learned that the SPLA-IO was planning an ambush on the attacking force.

“The forces of General Tito Biel Wich have retreated back because; first of all we caught their spy agent with tips from the community. Second, they discovered that we were laying ambush on their way to attack Kaljak and they also understood that they had underestimated our strength,” the high-ranking intelligence officer said.

The senior opposition officer reiterated the SPLM-IO commitment to the ceasefire and security arrangements, but said the group “reserves the natural right to self-defense because we cannot die while we see the one killing us. We must defense ourselves but we are not for war.”