Gen. Cirilo denies responsibility for attack on aid convoy

JUBA – South Sudan’s National Salvation Front (NAS) led by General Thomas Cirilo Swaka has denied any link to yesterday’s attack in which a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy of three vehicles was attacked along the Yei-Morobo road on Friday morning resulting in the killing of one person and kidnapping of two others.

Yesterday, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said in a statement extended to Sudans Post that elements belonging to NAS attacked a convoy belong to the WFP, and then urged regional powers which mediated the revitalized peace agreement to designate the former army chief’s group as a negative force.

However, in a statement this morning, General Cirilo’s NAS denied any responsibility for the attack and said opposition forces have withdrawn to a farer distance from the area where the attack took place yesterday.

“The Leadership of National Salvation Front (NAS) learnt of uncorroborated report circulating on social media that NAS forces were involved in an attack on humanitarian convoy travelling between Yei and Morobo Counties on the early hours of 17^th September 2021,” said the statement signed by the group’s spokesman Suba Samuel Manasse and extended to Sudans Post.

“This attack on the humanitarian convey came at the time, when the regime’s forces are on military offensive against NAS forces especially in Yei and Kajo- Keji areas. As of now, NAS forces have withdrawn tactically to far locations; and at the same time, the area where the attack on humanitarian convoy took place is exclusively under the control of South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF),” the statement added.

It further stressed that the group “neither have a presence nor a base in the said location.”

The statement further condemned the attack and the accusations that it stand responsible behind the attacks and then accused members of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) who deserted army basis of responsibility.

“The Leadership of NAS explicitly refutes any participation in an attack against humanitarian convoy between Yei and Morobo road. And strongly condemns this inexcusable action against humanitarian operations,” it said.

“The SSPDF and their deserters in these areas are demoralized and frustrated with their command and government for being abandoned with no salary and food supply. These forces have been surviving on extortion, looting and highway robbery. For this reason, NAS indisputably believed that the SSPDF renegades were behind this attack on the humanitarian convoy,” it added.