June 24, 2021 — The Chief of General Staff of the SPLM/A in Opposition formerly under the leadership of the First Vice President, Chairman and Commander of the SPLM/A-IO, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, 1st Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual has performed traditional war rituals in Magenis today to announce “ca-ko car lok” and spoke of retributions .
Speaking in Nuer language while performing the rituals that are usually performed by elders, the Chief of Staff of the SPLM/A-IO 1st Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual declared that the military under his command is no longer loyal to the First Vice President emphasizing that they are oppressed and tired.
In Nuer language the Chief of Staff said they are oppressed enough and if it is a matter of war, they have been in it and therefore they would rather fight on than being oppressed.
“Cako mit, ha kuko luony, luony ko [we are oppressed, please set us free, set us free]”, Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech said.
“Mi ciko kam kor, ka ngach neye ii kor ja na thin [if you have given us war, we are ware that we are in the war]” He continued.
The Chief of Staff went on cursing the rituals over a white goat for a few minutes before declaring that they have refused “the black” while referring to superficial meaning of the name “Machar”.
“Mi cie caa kam nei, mi cie kam ha, aa cang ba ter na mola kene mola ke guan ter… bi ran a wa ben rar lo gua[in case if you have given us war, that you have given it to us, even if it would be fought the next tomorrow or the day after, we pray that you will protect us through]”
“Hey cako wicar cako lok, cako car lok [Hey, we have denounced the black head, we have rejected the black]” Gatwech continued.
The Chief of General Staff and his former Chairman began drifting apart since Machar decided to return to Juba earlier this year and since he made several attempts to convince Machar to return to their military headquarters to go and brief them but Machar downplayed their calls.
Dual further wrote several letters to IGAD and RJMEC requesting their leaderships to allow Machar to travel to Magenis in case he was under house arrest in Juba but their letters were never returned.
Their disagreement was further escalated by Machar’s decision to appointment Lt. Gen. Johnson Olony as the governor of Upper Nile state and later replaced Olony with another Chollo politicains, Hon. Â Budhok Ayang Kur, after Olony disagreed on terms of his appointment.
Machar further made attempts to appoint Gen. Gatwech Dual to a political position to advise the president on peace agreement which would require him to step down from his current military position to travel to Juba which he turned down and instead called on Kiir and Machar to implement the security arrangement and relocate the IDPs and refugees.
According to Machar’s office, the Chief of Staff has been relieved from his current position; however, no official documents shows that Machar has relieved the Chief of General Staff and no replacement has been announced so far.
