December 18th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – A senior main armed opposition, SPLA-IO, commander has died in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, several opposition officials told Nyamilepedia from both Juba and Khartoum Wednesday.
Speaking to Nyamilepedia on Wednesday morning, a senior SPLM-IO official said General Chayot died of liver cancer after a lengthy battle with the illness.
“General Sadam died on Tuesday in Khartoum after hes has been fighting with liver cancer,” the opposition official who requested not to be named said.
“We realized that the illness was in its critical stages.”
Another senior SPLM-IO official described him as a “great leader who devoted his time to the general good of his South Sudanese people. He will be remembered by many as an hero.”
Another SPLM-IO member, Tut Kuany Kok, describes the late Chayot as a “hero” and “God-fearing” recalling his achievements during the North-South Sudanese civil war when he joined the SPLA.
“He was a hero, God fearing, and faithful servant who served as the commander of Pinylik-battallion [which was] later integrated into SPLA,” he said.
“He spent his youth[hood] in the bush while fighting for an inalienable right of black South Sudanese who were marginalize and oppressed for two decades by the Sudanese,” he added.
He said the commander, when civil war broke out in South Sudan in 2013, “without hesitation decided to move with his people who got ethnically killed by Salva Kiir Mayardit and becomes the die-hard commander under the … SPLA-IO [led by] Dr. Riek Machar.”
“Therefore, he was a great man whom we will all dearly miss for his dedication and commitment to emancipate South Sudanese from the current turmoil, political and ethnic chaos. His heroic story shall live in our hearts.”
General Chayot rebelled in 2013 after the outbreak of the ongoing civil war and joined the Machar-led opposition group in its fight against the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit.
He served as the first SPLM-IO governor of Adar state following the division of the country into 21 federal states by opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar.
He was in his late 50s when he died.
