Formation of New Rebel Movement Increases Number of Armed Groups in South Sudan
Posted by Enough Team on Sep 30, 2016
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On the September 27, 2016, a new rebel movement formerly allied to
David Yau Yau - and calling itself the Cobra faction - defected from
the South Sudanese government. Led by General Khalid Boutros, a former
deputy to Yau Yau, the group has declared war against the government.
It stated that the government had repeatedly violated the Greater
Pibor Administrative Area peace agreement signed in 2014, forcing the
group to resume fighting. General Boutros was quoted on Sudan Tribune
saying, “We are actually forced to fight, we signed a peace agreement,
but the government violated the agreement, so we are forced to fight.”
The defection of the Cobra faction follows the formation of a new
rebel group, The National Democratic Movement, this past weekend. Led
by South Sudan’s former Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin,
the group articulated its purpose in this statement sent to the Sudan
Tribune: “The National Democratic Movement was born to wage the
struggle, together with others in the field, against the totalitarian,
corrupt and ethnocentric regime in Juba that is bent on dragging our
country into the abyss.”
Lam Akol resigned from the Democratic Change Party and all his
leadership positions including the chairmanship of his party and his
ministerial role on August 1, 2016. At the time of his resignation,
Akol stated that there was “no more peace agreement to implement in
Juba.” In an interview with Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Akol said he had
worked through peaceful means but the repeated violation of the peace
agreement showed that the South Sudanese government was bent on war.
The entry of Lam Akol’s National Democratic Movement brings the number
of armed groups fighting the government of South Sudan to eight. This
includes: Riek Machar’s SPLM-in Opposition (SPLM-IO), John Ivo's Maban
Defense Force, General Khalid Boutros’ Cobra/South Sudan Democratic
Movement, and armed groups in Central Equatoria, Eastern Eastern,
Western Equatoria, and Western Bahr-el Ghazal who claim allegiance to
the SPLM-IO.
Sudan and South Sudan
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