Kiir expels David Yau Yau from top SPLM decision-making body, parliament

JUBA, OCTOBER 30, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Monday night dismissed a former rebel leader turned government ally from the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) faction’s National Liberation Council (NLC).

In a decree readout on the state-owned broadcaster SSBC, Kiir expelled General David Yau Yau from the NLC of the ruling SPLM party faction. In another decree, the president also revoked Yau Yau’s membership of the transitional parliament where he represents his home-area of the Greater Pibor.

Kiir in other decrees also read out on the state broadcaster removed Charles Welo as a member of the transitional parliament where he also represents the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA). The president then removed Butrus Ochalla Ojulu from the GPAA legislative assembly.

The president did not give reasons for the changes, but cited powers provided for in the SPLM constitution, the South Sudan transitional constitution (2011) and the revitalized peace agreement he signed with opposition groups in 2018.

Yau Yau was the leader of the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army (SSDM/A) until he dissolves the group to join the ruling SPLM faction in 2016 following the signing – in 2014, of a peace agreement with the government to end a four-year-old conflict in Jonglei State.

Following the 2014 peace agreement, he was appointed as the first chief administrator for the Greater Pibor Administrative Area and then as a minister od defense in 2016 following his replacement by President Kiir.

In 2021, he was appointed by President Kiir as a member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) to represent one of the constituencies of the Greater Pibor on the ticket of the SPLM party.

Last year, he was nominated to the SPLM National Liberation Council. In December that year, a high-level meeting of the ruling party by President Salva Kiir endorsed Yau Yau’s nomination along with dozens of other nominees.

POCHALLA VIOLENCE

The dismissal of General Yau Yau comes after weeks of deadly violence between local armed civilians and the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) in Pochalla County of the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

Following the defeat of the SSPDF in Pochalla, armed mobilization of civilians took place in Pibor and Verteth counties under the direct command of General Joshua Kony, a former chief administrator who was alleged to be a close ally of Yau Yau, and the SSPDF commander in Pochalla who was displaced from his base.

Following reports of armed mobilization, senior government officials in Pibor and Pochalla told Sudans Post two weeks ago that violence between the SSPDF and the armed local youth had resumed after claims that locals had attacked an army helicopter delivering food.