Kiir’s security advisor behind death of General Peter Gatdet in 2019 – General Stephen Buay

JUBA – Former South Sudanese army commander, General Stephen Buay Rolnyang, who was stripped of his rank and dismissed from service in 2019 has accused President Salva Kiir’s security advisor Tutkew Gatluak of killing General Peter Gatdet Yaka by poisoning in the Sudanese capital in April 2019.

General Gatdet, a popular military commander who was the first to take up arms against the government in Juba in 2018 died in Khartoum from heart attack – according to the South Sudan United Movement it led – on April 15, 2019.

It was not clear if an investigation into circumstances leading to his death were conducted, as the government hasn’t issued any statement following his demise after returning from a field mission to northern Unity state two weeks before he died.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, Buay who declared his intention to join South Sudan United Front (SSUF/A) led by General Paul Malong Awan last week accused Tut Gatluak of being behind his detention and dismissal from the army in 2019 because a group he led wanted him dead like General Peter Gatdet.

“These people are the one who arrested me in 2016 and 2018 respectively simply because they want to get rid of me like they did to General Peter Gatdet in Khartoum when the poisoned him and died in 2019,” General Buay stated.

“They don’t want to see me progressing. So that is the problem, these are the people who arrested me in 2016 and in 2018 and finally they influenced the court and the court decided on their behalf according to what they told the court. So they succeeded, demoted me and removed me from the SSPDF,” he added.

Buay who is currently in Nairobi claimed that he has evidences, but could not provide one and when asked as to why the SSUM which was under Gatdet didn’t mention of any of the claims he made, he replied: “I know my friend I have a lot of information about his death. His group knows about this but they couldn’t and wouldn’t say because they choose to be silent.”

“They don’t want to say this publicly but inside their houses, they talk about it and you can hear that they say it. They can’t speak in the streets because they are afraid they will end up like me, the same thing that happened to me will happen to them.”