South Sudan rebels say army chief sanctioned Olony’s ‘scorched earth’ orders

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group has accused the country’s military leadership of sanctioning a campaign of “genocidal incitement” in the volatile Upper Nile region, alleging that a recent order by a top commander to “spare no lives” was issued with the explicit blessing of the army chief.

In a statement issued late Saturday, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) condemned the remarks made by General Johnson Olony Thabo, the commander of the Agwelek militia and the army’s assistant chief for mobilisation.

Olony was filmed on Saturday addressing troops at Poktap, Jonglei State, ordering them to “spare no lives,” including the elderly and children, and to destroy homes during an imminent offensive against opposition positions.

The SPLM-IO, led by detained First Vice President Riek Machar, said these directives amount to a calculated return to the ethnic massacres that plunged the young nation into civil war in 2013.

“Lt. Gen. Johnson Olony Thabo openly called for the destruction of Greater Upper Nile, ordering that nothing be left alive… He further stated that this plan was discussed with the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Paul Nang, and had his blessing,” Reath Muoch Tang, the SPLM-IO’s acting chairperson for foreign relations, said in the statement.

The accusation that the Chief of Defence Forces, General Paul Nang Majok, personally signed off on a “scorched earth” policy marks a severe escalation in the rhetoric between the fragile peace partners.

The opposition warned that the military leadership is actively mobilizing communities along tribal lines, a strategy they said was designed to “revive the memories of 1991 to justify new cycles of violence.”

The reference to 1991 touches on one of the deepest wounds in South Sudan’s history—the “Bor Massacre”—where forces loyal to Riek Machar, then an SPLA rebel commander, killed at least 2,000 civilians in Jonglei.

By invoking this history, the opposition claims the government is weaponizing past trauma to incite Dinka youth in Jonglei to take up arms against Nuer communities in the current conflict.

“The SPLM-IO reiterates that it is not fighting any community, but a violent system that has destroyed South Sudan,” Tang said, attempting to distance the opposition from the ethnic framing of the war.

At the center of the controversy is General Olony, a veteran warlord from the Shilluk kingdom who has spent decades oscillating between rebellion and government service. Though appointed by President Salva Kiir to a senior military post in January 2025, his Agwelek forces remain a largely independent militia.

The SPLM-IO noted that Olony was leading a “so-called disarmament exercise” despite his own forces not being integrated into the national army, the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF).

The opposition urged the international community, including the United Nations and the African Union, to intervene immediately, warning that the rhetoric mirrored the “same ethnic mobilization tactics used in 2013” which led to the death of an estimated 400,000 people.

The statement comes as thousands of governments and allied militia troops have massed in central Jonglei, preparing for what military sources describe as a decisive push to clear opposition forces from the region.