Kiir ally claims Machar, Cirilo, Malong and Pagan are responsible for ethnic violence

JUBA, MARCH 21, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – A senior member of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) faction led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit has claimed that First Vice President Riek Machar and opposition leaders Paul Malong, Pagan Amum and Thomas Cirilo are exploiting ethnic sentiments to promote ethnic violence in South Sudan.

Addressing journalists in Juba on Tuesday, Bol Makueng, the SPLM Secretary for External Affairs, said Peter Lam – who is under fire for claiming Machar has declared war against the Dinka – was just stating that First Vice President Machar has been telling people that he was fighting the Dinka people and that this claim is supported by information in the public domain currently.

“But he (Peter Lam Both) was addressing it when he said that Riek [Machar] was telling people that his war was against the Dinka which triggered all this and which is true because the soldiers who used to come back during all these conflicts used to come and said we have been misled, we are told that we are fighting the Dinka. They said it over the media many times and it is in the archive,” he said.

The senior SPLM party official further said that Lam was just making it very clear that Machar, SSUF/A leader Malong, Real-SPLM leader Pagan, and leader of the National Salvation Front (NAS) Cirilo are exploiting ethnic sentiments of their communities to promote ethnic violence in the world’s youngest country.

“So, Peter Lam was only advising the people of South Sudan that don’t use ethnicity. What mentioned Riek Machar was an example of those of Malong, those of Pagan, those of Thomas Cirilo, who are actually articulating on ethnic basis appealing to the ethnic sentiments so mentioning this was actually telling the people of South Sudan don’t go ethnic and especially don’t go violence. If you have a case, if you have a political program, please tell the people of South Sudan,” he said.

“The people of South Sudan shouldn’t again be agitated by these hypocrites because this kind of hypocrisy is the one that is being utilized these days for political gains. They will clash our communities to fight and kill each other just because they want to be put as a general, or you want to be a vice president, or you want to be a minster. These things are things of the past, let’s understand ourselves as communities.

“Also, there is no vice-president, a tribal vice-president, a tribal general or a tribal minister. These things are not there. If you are there, you are for the whole nation, you are not for a specific community. I just need to be clear to the people of South Sudan, if they don’t get it right, please all we ask never never again led the blood of South Sudanese in your hands, please,” he added.