South Sudan issues threats against ‘individuals’ supplying arms to Ethiopian rebels

JUBA – South Sudan government on Friday warned that some individuals it didn’t name maybe behind supply of weapons and ammunition to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that has been fighting the government since November last year.

This comes after social media users speculated that the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit was supplying arms to the TPLF at a time when the government says it cannot graduate the unified forces provided for in the revitalized peace agreement due to lack of arms imposed by the UN arms embargo.

Speaking during following the cabinet meeting in Juba on Friday, information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said some individuals maybe behind the business and warned that they would be doing that at their own risk.

“If there are individuals who may be selling arms, these might be individuals who are in possession of their own private firearms and if they are doing that, they are doing it at their own risk,” Makuei said.

He further said that the government and the people of South Sudan stands with the people and government of Ethiopia saying Ethiopia was one of a few regional countries that stood with South Sudan during its war of independence with the north.

“We have to make this very clear and assure the Ethiopian government that we are with them, we are with the government and people of Ethiopia and we will never work against them,” Makuei said.

“The Ethiopian and the government of Ethiopia all these years have been standing with us and without the support of Ethiopian and the government, we would not have been independent. There is no way whereby we can say we are supporting Ethiopian rebels in order to overthrow the system in Ethiopia,” he added.