Gen. Makuach Teny, 20 rebel figures dump Gatwech for Machar

JUBA – A group of senior military officers and politicians led by former South Sudan minister of culture and heritage, Gen. James Makuach Teny, this afternoon announced its intention to abandon the SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction led by General Simon Gatwech Dual and join the SPLM-IO led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny.

General Makuach, a former high-ranking member of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Machar, had switched side to join General Gatwech when the later attempted, in Magenis in August last year, to remove Machar as leader of the main armed opposition group.

“This is to confirm that General Makuach Teny has responded positively to the call by the chairman and commander in chief of the SPLM/SPLA-IO 1^st Lt. Gen. Simon Dual for former SPLM-IO military and political leaders who abandoned the movement because of the bad administration by Dr. Riek Machar Teny to return to the movement,” General Gatjiath, then rebel spokesman, told Sudans Post from Magenis on August 31^st 2021.

Speaking to Sudans Post following a press conference in the Sudanese capital Khartoum this afternoon, Gen. Makuach confirmed his defection from Gatwech’s group and said they have discovered lately that the decision by General Gatwech Dual to form a movement of his own apart from SPLM-IO in 2021 was a set up by President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government to disturb the peace among the opposition members and prolong the suffering of the citizens.

“We are defecting from the SPLM-IO Kitgwang faction under General Gatwech Dual because they have no vision and their decision to defect from the SPLM-IO in August last year has happened to be a set up to frustrate the movement under H.E the First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny,” Makuach told Sudans Post in Khartoum when asked as to why he defected to Gatwech in the first place.

“So, we believe that it is not too late for us to do the right thing by returning to the real SPLM/SPLA (IO) under the wise leadership of H.E the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon and we call on anyone who is still questioning that the right decision to protect the revitalized peace agreement is to rejoin the movement under the leader of Dr. Riek Machar,” Makuach added.

Makuach said the world’s youngest country is in a very critical stage of the transition that he said wants the unity of the opposition, claiming that the SPLM faction under President Salva Kiir Mayardit is growing more intransigent against opposition groups because of the disunity that he said has been caused by the government among the rebel forces.

“Our country is going through difficult time especially this time of transition from violence to peace. The government under Salva Kiir is doing all it can in order to destroy the unity of the opposition, the only solution for the problems of the people of South Sudan, so it can continue to exploit the weakness and cement the dictatorship,” he added.

Makuach further added that “I am moving away from this group with at least 21 senior members of the opposition military formerly under Gatwech as well as politicians and we are not turning back, but only asking our few comrades who have decided to stay behind to take one of the critical decisions for the sack of changing our people’s situation from bad to good.”