Gen. Buay says Kiir, Machar have ‘nothing to lose’ if country is back to conflict

JUBA – South Sudan opposition leader and former SSPDF commander General Stephen Buay Rolnyang has said that President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny have nothing to lose if the country is back to conflict over their failure to achieve an inclusive peace.

General Buay made the remarks in an interview with Sudans Post and said that the two men want to exploit violence in the country so that they remain in power; something he said has defined their leadership before and after the outbreak of war.

“They have nothing to lose. They just want to exploit the war so that they keep extending themselves through transitional governments to make them stay in power for the rest of their life,” General Buay said.

Gen. Buay who is the chairman and commander in chief of South Sudan People’s Movement/Army (SSPM/A) which he established following his humiliating dismissal from South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) after being accused of rebellion said the people of South Sudan should unite themselves to remove Kiir and Machar from power by whatever mean including violence.

“The South Sudanese must unite themselves and remove Kiir and Riek Machar by violence because peaceful means have failed and instead they have consolidated themselves through peace agreements,” he said.

‘NOTHING TO CELEBRATE’

South Sudan – the world’s youngest country – on Saturday marked eleven years since its independence from neighboring Sudan in July 2011, but citizens including prominent opposition leader Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin said that the country has nothing to celebrate more than a decade after independence.

In a statement on South Sudan’s independence anniversary, Akol who is the chairman of the opposition National Democratic Movement (NDM) said the citizens have nothing to celebrate despite the promises made by the current leaders during the liberation struggle.

“Eleven years after independence we have little to show by way of translating into reality the slogans we have been shouting about during the struggle. We promised our people democracy, freedoms, service delivery, development, healthy economy, national unity, imposing the rule of law, accountability, and empowerment of women, promotion of national unity, accountability and promotion of the youth,” Akol said.

“Eleven years on we can hardly put our finger on an achievement on these important pillars of national obligation, except for one or two infrastructural projects designed, financed and executed by foreign countries,” he added.