SPLM-IO dismisses allegations that it has ‘betrayed’ Shilluk community over transfer of Makal county 

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by the country’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has dismissed – as untrue – allegations by social media users and the people of Shilluk people that it has betrayed the community over decision to endorse a 2017 government plan to move away Makal county headquarters from the Upper Nile state’s capital Malakal.

On Friday last week, South Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs Martin Elia Lomoro said in a statement to the state-ran South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) that a meeting chaired by Machar resolved to endorse the 2017 Council of States resolution moving away Makal County from Malakal town to Wau Shilluk and for Malakal to form a municipality with five counties.

In reaction, social media activist condemned the decision calling it a betrayal of the Shilluk people by the first vice president who some said had assured them that no decision regarding Malakal county will be taken without their consent.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an interview in Cairo on Monday, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council (NLC) and close ally to Machar dismissed the allegation as untrue and said Machar took the decision only to calm tension between the Shilluk community and their Apadang counterpart who he said have been quarreling over the matter for a very long time.

“Some people who are saying that Dr. Riek Machar has betrayed them are not telling the truth because Dr. Riek has only resolved the matter and removal of Makal county from Malakal does not mean that the Malakal has been given away to anyone else,” he said.

“There are many tribes in Malakal and not only Shilluk people. There are Dinka Apadang, there are those people from Maban, there are Nuer and there are Shilluk. So, Malakal is becoming a symbol of Unity for the people of Upper Nile state and the Shilluk people should be misled that they have been betrayed,” he added.

The senior opposition official further accused unnamed entities of working behind the scenes to spoil teh relationship between the SPLM-IO and the Shilluk people so that a new kind of conflict is created that will divide the people of Upper Nile state along ethnic lines.

“Some of the people who would like to see the SPLM-IO in bad terms with the people of South Sudan are behind the allegations. They want to spoil the relationship between the SPLM-IO and the Shilluk community, but we will expose them,” he said.

“For the Shilluk people, there is no need to worry, the governor belong us, the SPLM-IO, and is their son, so I don’t think that a governor who is their son will do something  against them. We will continue to support peace efforts to make sure that the people of South Sudan do not return to war again,” he added.

Majokdit further said “if there are any complaints, they will have to be submitted to the reconstituted state parliament to address them.”