By William Madouk<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
South Sudan People\u2019s Defense Forces (SSPDF) has downplayed an alleged joint planned attack on the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Army in Opposition bases in Leer County, Unity State.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n SSPDF Spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said the allegation is false and unfounded fears.<\/p>\n He said the SPLM-IO assumed that Gen. Simon Maguek, who recently switched allegiance to SPLM-IG, was mobilizing youth to attack its bases in Leer County, Unity State.<\/p>\n SPLA-IO spokesperson, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel raised an alarm on the alleged plan to attack their bases.<\/p>\n “Tensions are high in Leer County as Lt. Gen. Maguek Gai, who recently defected to the SPLM-IG, is preparing to launch an attack against the SPLA-IO bases in and around the county using the SSPDF,\u201d claimed Col. Lam.<\/p>\n SPLA-IO is also discontented over the defection, saying it shows that the ruling party, SPLM, now control the army rather than the constitution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt should be noted that the defection of Maguek Gai to SPLM-IG exposed how the SSPDF is being controlled by a party rather than the constitution of this country; this, in a nutshell, is a remedy for destruction,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Col. Lam noted that this intentional violation is aimed at causing another round of unrest and displacement of civil populations.<\/p>\n In commitment to the implementation of the peace deal, SPLA-IO urges the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM) to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SPLA-IO calls on the CTSAMVM to investigate this intentional violation and hold those responsible to account,\u201d he appealed.<\/p>\n In a rebuttal, SSPDF spokesperson Gen. Lul Ruai denied that SSPDF had been used to attack SPLA-IO bases and instead accused SPLA-IO of a clandestine plan to attack after brainwashing the public with false claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with SPLM\/A-IO is that whenever an officer from their side shift allegiance feels bad, they are normally the ones attacking,\u201d said Gen. Ruai.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is a pretext; they are trying to make noise so that when they act, many people will believe it was what they said,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n However, according to Ruai, SPLA-IO is planning to get rid of General Maguek while playing innocence at first, before the public.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m very sure that they are mobilizing so that they could slash him out, but it’s just a massage of public opinion by saying the new group is mobilizing so that they attack,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n The SSPDF spokesperson said it has been a trend for the SPLA-IO to always attack, whenever an officer decamps.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the trends; whenever an officer with his followers defected from them and joined the SSPDF, they would be the ones attacking; they did it in Pagak when Ocan declared his defection,\u201d he cited.<\/p>\n \u201cThey did it also in Joko; when Peter Kor Chuol changed sides, they did it here with General Lokujo, and they did it also in Yambio. So I’m not surprised if there will be problems; it wouldn’t be the new group, it would be the SPLA-IO,\u201d Ruai lamented.<\/p>\n The SSPDF spokesperson disputes the claims that the army is being controlled by the ruling party, SPLM, rather than the constitution, saying the military protects everybody.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen SPLM-IO leadership came in 2018, they came without even a single soldier, and we have been protecting them for the last 5 years,\u201d Gen. Ruai remarked.<\/p>\n Gen. Ruai wondered if the SSPDF has ever failed its role of protection.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we not executing our mandate of giving protection to everybody, regardless of who that person is?\u201d he questioned. Whenever one of their friends joined the government, they would attack, and we have not been doing anything yet,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n On October 7, 2023, Gen. Maguek defected from SPLA-IO to SPLM-IG alongside senior commanders and about 200 officers.<\/p>\n He cited nepotism and claimed in a statement that he defected with over 3,000 officers and expected more to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By William Madouk South Sudan People\u2019s Defense Forces (SSPDF) has downplayed an alleged joint planned attack on the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Army in Opposition bases in Leer County, Unity State. SSPDF Spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said the allegation is false and unfounded fears. He said the SPLM-IO[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Spokesperson-of-the-South-Sudan-Peoples-Defense-Forces-SSPDF-Maj-Gen.-Lul-Ruai-photo-by-William-Madouk.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18859,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18857\/revisions\/18859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}