Top Machar ally says Gen. Gatwech, Olony’s group ‘dead’ as predicted

JUBA – A senior South Sudan opposition official allied to First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has said that the SPLM-IO Kitgwang faction led by General Simon Gatwech Dual and General Johnson Olony Thabo is dead as predicted saying the two men have now ended up in President Salva Kiir’s government.

General Simon Gatwech decided to break away from the Machar-led movement in August after accusing the First Vice President of surrendering to President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government at the expense of thousands of opposition soldiers who have largely remained outside the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

In a statement extended to Sudans Post, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM-IO National Liberation Council (NLC) said the SPLM-IO split was engineered by those he termed as spoilers of peace and that it is officially dead after announcing that they are going for talks with the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

“The Kitgwang declaration is dead at arrival. We knew it in the beginning, this project was designed by the spoilers of peace ….They have ended in the pocket of the big man. It’s very cheap argument to negotiate yourselves to the SPLM while accusing Dr. Riek Machar and the SPLM-IO of surrendering to Juba and we are here in Juba for peace,” he said in the statement.

He went on to call on former SPLM deputy chairman Henry Odwar who resigned as minister before appointment as head of the SPLM-IO Kitgwang faction’s political wing by General Gatwech in August and Mabior Garang de Mabior, the former SPLM-IO spokesman who also resigned last year as deputy minister of interior to return to the group.

“I urges Comrade Dr. Henry Dilah Odwar, Comrade Mabior Garang de Mabior, Comrade Manasseh Zindo, Comrade Goi Yol, to return back to the people’s movement under the leadership of His Excellency Dr. Riek Machar after being betrayed in Khartoum by the Generals, that signed the surrendered peace to Juba, and being told to leave Kitgwang because the three Generals don’t want politicians in their surrendering peaceful settlement to the Chairman of the SPLM,” he said, referring to President Salva Kiir.

“We believe that, the surrendered Peace in Khartoum shall be thrown into the dustbin after their arrival to Crown hotel in Juba. I hope they should consult the first Person who attempted to overthrow Dr Riek Machar in 2016. Kitgwang declaration is dead beforehand. We are in Juba as the Partners to peace but not as the People who surrendered to the regime or to maintain the Status Quo per say,” he added.