South Sudan’s peace-building minister denies mocking Machar on social media

JUBA – South Sudan’s peace-building minister Stephen Phar Kuol has distanced himself from a Facebook post that that appeared to show him mocking First Vice President and leader of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Dr. Riek Machar Teny over his failure to unseat President Kiir from power during the war.

“For the best of my knowledge in a conflict, a revolutionary leader who lost war should not just think to successfully run a nonviolent movement or party and change a victorious dictator,” the Facebook post attributed to Minister Phar reads in part.

“This entailed that Gatmachar is a strategic planner who cannot thoroughly strategize his planning in politics. Deny this as usual at your own cross,” it added.

But in a statement extended to Sudans Post, Duol Malow Jamlah, the executive director in the office of the minister distanced the senior SPLM-IO official from the post and accused members of a holdout SPLM-IO faction led by former opposition governor of Sobat State Duer Tut Duer of standing behind what appears to be fake information.

“In response to a social media post instigated by the so called reformists of Duer Tut, the Office of the Minister of Peace Building in the R-TGoNU do hereby refute the statement as completely baseless and ignoble,” Chuol said in the statement a copy of which was extended to Sudans Post last week.

“The disgruntled group of Duer Tut politically has long strayed from the coastal path into a dangerous territory just because their selfish interests were not met then. So, we term them as stray dogs,” he added.

The senior peace-building ministry official further said his ministry “encourages all the social media users and our movement supporters to consider this as a trash and give it a deaf hear as an untrue accusation that doesn’t base on facts.”