Day: September 7, 2021

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has promoted an aide to a high military rank, causing mixed reactions and protest in the army command structures.

Kiir, in a note to the army Chief of Defence Forces, Gen Santino Deng Wol, promoted James Deng Wal Achien to Major General.

Achien currently serves as the Executive Director in the office of the South Sudanese leader.

Kiir later appeared next to the aide who was clad in military attire bearing his new rank, attracting him congratulatory messages from family members, relatives, friends as well as work colleagues.

It remains unclear how the South Sudanese leader decided to promote an aide, whose military background is being questioned.

Observers say Kiir’s close allies could have hatched a plan to have Achien promoted to pave way for the president’s son, Thiik Salva Kiir, who is deputy executive director in the president’s office.

However, while several army generals at the headquarters view it as an act undermining conventional practice, others have defended the president’s actions, saying it was his prerogative.

A South Sudanese army general told Sudan Tribune on Sunday that Kiir treats the army like a rebel movement operating without conventional practices on which institutional decisions are based.

“What has been happening since 2005 when Salva Kiir took the mantle of leadership is not only shocking and frustrating service men and women but the manner in which he makes his decisions these days are embarrassing and clearly demoralizing those who are still in service hoping things will someday improve”, said the military general, who preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

He added, “I think the president still lives in this era because the way he does the things these days is exactly the way things were done back in the bush days of the liberation struggle”.

The general said appointments and deployments are now being politicised, citing the ways in which appointments they are made without involving relevant departments and institutional leadership.

“This has now politicized the deployment in the divisions and here at the general headquarters. Military assignments are now lobbied. I have never experienced this before, never in the history of the army that one will have to ask for a deployment to specific place. The command decides and deployment is rotated. Those eligible for deployment do not have to know,” stressed the general.

He added, “They are only informed. But today, people must know where they will be deployed and if they do not like they have to lobby where they would like to be deployed. This kills institutional spirit and undermine spirit of nationalism”.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A prominent South Sudanese opposition politician has said only citizens are capable of removing dictatorial regimes from power, not armies under their control.

Lam Akol, in an op-ed published on Friday, said South Sudan government should address the root causes of discontent among the country’s citizens, instead of threats and intimidation.

Akol heads the National Democratic Movement (NDM), a non-political organisation which is a signatory to the September 2018 peace accord.

“It is important to stress that the army will never intervene in favour of the uprising unless and until the masses are on the streets in huge numbers. Therefore, the critical and tipping support of the army is conditional on a well mobilized and disciplined mass of people thronging the main streets of the national capital. Herein comes the centrality of mobilization and organization of the people for mass action”, he opined.

Akol’s opinion was in response to what Atem Garang de Kuek, a legislator from Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), wrote.

According to De Kuek, societies in neighbouring Sudan possessed some sociological fundamentals that made it possible for the people to overthrow the dictatorial government of the former President Omar al Bashir without the use of guns or violence.

Anti-government demonstrations began in Sudan in 2018 with protesters calling for long-time leader al-Bashir to go, before the military stepped in April 2019, launching a coup and arresting him.

However, Akol, who witnessed these events in Sudan, disagrees with de Kuek.

He instead argued that semblance of an independent civil society organizations is lacking in South Sudan because the government wants to control them or in some cases ensured they are led by its members so that there are no spaces and voices for discontent.

“The government should also open the political space so that the people can vent their feelings including their constitutional right to demonstrations. Being preoccupied with the fear of a possible Uprising and nothing is being done to deny it the ingredients that make it happen is the surest way of its ultimate occurrence. History teaches us that no military might have ever defeated the will of a people,” said Akol.

“What has happened is that our neighbors here have decided to block, lock, or close their boundaries for cars that are coming in with goods, fuel or any other goods. This is the one responsible for the current scarcity of fuel and other items in the market”, he added. He denied assertions attributed to senior government officials that they were busy with the implementations. He pointed to delays caused by political brinkmanship and intransigency,” he added.

Meanwhile, Presidential Affairs minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the government wants to ensure the peace deal signed with the parties to end conflict the five-year civil war is implemented.

“The parties and the people of this great country need to move forward and the only way to do it is through the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement. The implementation of the agreement is the only way and opportunity to organize elections in which people will have a choice to elect leaders”, he told Sudan Tribune on Monday.

President Salva Kiir, opposition leader Riek Machar and several opposition groups signed the revitalised agreement in September 2018 in an attempt to resolve the conflict.

Under the terms of the peace deal, the rival parties are to create a unified army, settle disputes over the number of states and form a transitional government that will run the country for three years until elections.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The seizure of 70 boxes of weapons sparked a row between the prosecutor of the Empowerment Removal Committee and the Interior Ministry on Monday.

On Monday, the Interior Ministry stated the cargo of guns and night-vision goggles that arrived in Khartoum on an Ethiopian Airlines plane on Saturday is legally imported by a weapons trader and it will take the needed measures for its release.

For his part, the public prosecutor of the empowerment removal committee swiftly rejected the clearance of the cargo by the interior ministry saying it violates the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Law of Empowerment Removal, and Dismantlement of the June 30 regime.

“Reviewing the decisions of the Public Prosecution Office or evaluating the content of its letters and orders can only be made by the competent judicial authority, not the police which is a law enforcement agency,” stressed the prosecution.

The incriminated weapons were imported by a trader under the former regime. When the cargo arrived in Addis Ababa on 23 May 2019, the Ethiopian authorities stopped it for further investigations.

Recently, the Ethiopian carrier decided to release the cargo without informing the Sudanese authorities about the decision, as the lawyer Siraj al-Din Hamid Youssif a known Islamist was the representative of the weapon trader.

Youssif’s involvement in the contacts with Ethiopian Airlines raised suspensions about the cargo, who will use these weapons and why it arrived in Khartoum at this time.

Relations between Addis Ababa and Khartoum are strained due to the border dispute and the GERD dam crisis. Recently the two neighbours traded accusations of support to rebel groups.

The Ethiopian Airlines issued a statement saying they transported legally imported hunting guns “with all proper documents of the shipper and the consignee”.

The carrier further disclosed that the Ethiopian security service held the weapons for a long time for verification while the owner of the weapon requested a $250,000 compensation.

“We have all the documentation that proves the legality of the shipment including a letter from the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs” added the statement.

Seniors officials in Khartoum are frustrated by the mismanagement of this issue between the different government organs as the case raises criticism against the hasty announcement of the empowerment removal committee.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan is appealing to national and local leaders to resolve tensions in Tambura and the wider Western Equatorian region after a fresh outbreak of fighting.

The call comes in the wake of reports of Sunday’s sporadic shooting between groups in Tambura, endangering the lives of civilians thus creating the risk of further displacement and increasing humanitarian needs.

The latest incident follows rising tension and violence in the past few months.

“We are urging those engaged in the conflict to end the fighting so that security can be restored,” said the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Nicholas Haysom.

“It is also vital that political leaders at the national and local level take urgent action to resolve tensions and bring communities together to avoid further loss of life, homes, and livelihoods,” he added.

According to Haysom, fighting has forced over 40,000 people to flee their homes.

“This is increasing demand for humanitarian assistance at a time when resources are already stretched. Aid workers are also finding themselves caught in the crossfire while trying to carry out their critical tasks,” stressed Haysom, urging authorities to ensure humanitarians have safe and unhindered access to those in need.

The top UN official said although the primary responsibility for protecting civilians lies with national and state governments, UNMISS is doing all it can to deter violence and build peace in the affected areas of Western Equatoria.

The UN mission said it has extended the duration of the temporary base it established in Tambura several weeks ago when fighting first broke out, enabling the peacekeepers to carry out day and night patrols and provide a protective presence for civilians, including the displaced families.

It, however, said it would continue supporting various reconciliation and peacebuilding activities, bringing together political and security actors, civil society, traditional and faith-based leaders and community members.

According to reports, the routine of inter-communal clashes in many parts of the country prevails due to lack of an efficient justice system.

Source: Sudan Tribune