Top SPLA-IO general dies in Khartoum

JUBA, JANUARY 26^th 2023 (SUDANS POST) – The chief of military mobilization of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) Gen. Charles Ngundeng Gatluak has passed on in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, according to a senior SPLA-IO officer.

The SPLA-IO officer who refused to be named because he was not authorized to talk to the media said the top opposition commander has been sick for three months and died on Monday at a Sudanese hospital in Khartoum.

“General Charles Ngundeng Gatluak died after a long suffering from an illness. He became sick three months ago and he has been since been seeking treatment at a hospital here in Khartoum but unfortunately, he died on Monday,” the source said.

The opposition official further said that the body of the senior SPLA-IO military officer was flown to Juba on Tuesday afternoon and has already been put to rest.

“His body has already been taken to Juba where he has been put to rest. He was a very great man who contributed to the struggle for peace in the republic of South Sudan,” the official added.

Gen. Ngundeng is from Mayom County of South Sudan’s Unity State.

He joined the main armed opposition group following the outbreak of violence in December 2013 and became a senior military officer in the new rebel movement.

In 2015, General Ngundeng defected along with late General Peter Gatdet Yaka, then a senior SPLA-IO commander, to form a movement of their own.

He would later return to the SPLA-IO under First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny where he would be appointed as chief of mobilization which he held until his demise earlier this week.