Veteran Anyanya-I commander who was at epicenter of 1991 SPLA split dies in Khartoum

KHARTOUM – South Sudan’s veteran Anyanya-1 and SPLA-IO commander Gen. Gordon Koang Chuol who was at the epicenter of the 1991 SPLA split has passed on in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after long illness, South Sudan’s First Vice President and main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny has said.

“General Gordon Koang Chuol Kulang has passed on at 6:00 PM Thursday the 6^th January 2022 in Khartoum after long illness,” Machar said in a statement this week.

“His body will be laid to rest in Nasir, Upper Nile State,” he added.

He was in his late 70s.

In the statement, Machar praised him as “a veteran who devoted his entire life to liberation of South Sudan as from Anyanya and SPLM/SPLA armed struggle.”

“General Gordon Koang Chuol Kulang was a member of SPLM/SPLA Political Military High Command and a top member of Nasir Declaration, which resulted to the split of SPLM/SPLA in 1991.

“The Nasir Declaration raised three issues namely the Right of Self-Determination for people of South Sudan, Democracy and Respect of Human Rights in SPLM/SPLA.

“The legacy of General Gordon Koang Chuol Kulang is in these ideals which culminated to Independence and Sovereignty of this country.

“On behalf of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) and on my own behalf and family, I wish to convey my deepest condolences to the family, relatives, friends and the entire people of South Sudan for this loss.”

General Koang was a member of a group of Anyanya 1 commanders who formed, along with Dr. John Garang De Mabior, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/SPLA) in 1983, just less than a decade before the infamous 1991 SPLA split.

The split took place in August following what would became the ‘Nasir Declaration’ on August 28, 1991, and fitted the SPLA-Nasir, led by Machar, Dr. Lam Akol, CDR. Gordon Koang Chuol, against the SPLA-Torit led by Dr. John Garang De Mabior.

Following the 1997 signing of the Khartoum, peace agreement by the SPLA-Nasir and the Khartoum-based regime, Koang was integrated into the Sudanese army, though he has maintained a separate force.

In 2002, Machar returned to the SPLA and Koang remained behind in Khartoum. After Southern Sudan gained independence in July 2011, he has never returned to South Sudan, but briefly joined the SPLA-IO following the outbreak of war in December 2013.

He then accused Machar of failed leadership and went back to form his own group again. Around 2016, he felt sick and was flown to the Egyptian capital Cairo where he stayed for months receiving treatment.