June 17th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – The leader of the National Salvation Front (NAS) peace faction, General Khalid Butrus, has visited troops in Boma state as he prepares them for cantonment as a part of a peace agreement he and other opposition groups signed with South Sudan government last year.
President Salva Kiir Mayardiit signed the revitalized peace agreement with different opposition groups including the opposition umbrella South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA). General Khalid Butrus’ NAS faction is a member of the SSOA and based in the agreement, all their troops could be cantoned in a site agreed upon by the parties.
General Butrus’s faction split from NAS led by General Thomas Cirilo Awaka last year accusing the later of wanting to prolong the suffering of the South Sudanese by refusing to compromise for the sake of peace.
In a statement issued on Friday and extended to the Nyamilepedia, the group’s spokesman, Jacob Lado Paul said his boss, accompanied by senior rebel military and state government officials, visited troops in Boma.
“On 13th June 2019 Lt. Gen. Khalid Butrus Bora, Chairman and Commander in Chief of National Salvation Front (NAS) accompanied by Major General Hassaballah Kadai and Bridger General James Modi paid a visit to Boma state for verification of cantonment site,” Paul wrote in the statement.
He said in the statement that General Bora also held a closed door meeting with state governor, David Yau Yau as well as members peace monitors and local chiefs who selected the site to him for the cantonment of troops.
“He held meetings with state governor Gen. David Yaw Yaw, representatives of JMCC [Joint Military Ceasefire Commission] and CTSAMVM, [local] chiefs and elders,” the statement said.
“Tenet Garrison in Taynajok county, three miles south of the state capital Pibor, has been chosen and given for the cantonment by chiefs and elders of the state for training of both SSOA and SPLA/IO forces in the area,” it added.
The opposition spokesman said forces belonging to de facto NAS leader General Khalid Butrus Bora in the east of the country would “soon be ordered to report to Taynajok cantonment site in Boma state for training.”
