May 31st 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – SPLA Fifth Infantry division deputy commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Buay Rolnyang has been captured alive this afternoon by militia troops under Gen. Puljang Top, a militia commander allied to South Sudan’s SPLA under the overall command of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir Mayardiit, sources told Nyamilepedia on Thursday evening.
This morning, Buay decided to defect from Kiir’s SPLA after leaving Wau for Mayom in what seemed to be protest to Bilpam directives that he must report to the Headquarters in the next 72 hours.
Buay reportedly defied orders from the SPLA chief of defence forces directing him to report to Juba over what the SPLA command in the defunct Western Bahr Al-Gazhal capital Wau said were rebel-related activities.
Sources told the Nyamilepedia on the condition of anonymity that Buay left Wau with 150 soldiers in protest to the orders to report to Juba and headed to Mayom where he and Puljang went to visit Gatdeng, a traditional god among the Bul-Nuer community.
“Buay fled from here with 150 troops and went to Mayom to protest orders from the general headquarters in Biilpam, he told Jok Riak that he would first report to see his family in Mayom before reporting to Juba,” the source told the Nyamilepedia on the condition of anonymity from Wau.
Reports say that Buay informed Gen. Puljang of his defection before the later could order his troops to arrest him leading to fighting that captured him.
Elders reportedly intervened and urged him to surrender conveying that Puljang had given him one of two choices – either to surrender or risked being killed.
Buay has been one of a few disciplined SPLA commanders, who stood against SPLA brutality against civilians and human rights violations against women – a decision that pushed his fellow commanders to suspect him of links to rebels allied to the country’s former first vice president, Riek Machar.
The commander was the 4th SPLA infantry commander before his arrest on similar cases in 2016 and was redeployed to the same position after his release last year until his redeployment to Wau as the deputy commander of the SPLA 5th infantry division.
Buay was again summoned to Juba last week which resulted into his flight to Mayom where he has been finally reportedly captured today.
