January 13th, 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai, has been accused of working day and night to derail the peace agreement signed in September last year by President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon.
Under regional and international pressure, Kiir and Machar along other opposition leaders signed in September last year a revitalized version of a 2015 peace deal in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to end the ongoing civil war.
The agreement in Addis Ababa followed months of intense negotiations among delegates of the government and opposition who must, by the time, sign a preliminary agreement by August 5th, 2018 or face regional and international isolation.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Dickson Gatluak Jock Nyuot, an army colonel, previously loyal to the First Vice President Taban Deng Gai and who defected last week said FVP Taban Deng is working day and night to jeopardize the ongoing peace process.
“Taban Deng Gai and his cohorts are not sleeping, they are working day and night towards sabotaging this R-ARCSS so as to provoke Lou-Nuer such that a full-scale war could return back,” Gatluak said in a statement extended to the Nyamilepedia referring to an attack launched by suspected Murle militiamen last week against Lou-Nuer areas in Bieh.
Gatluak further revealed that Taban ordered – without the knowledge of the General Headquarters of the SSPDF – a November attack against SPLA-IO barrack in Biel in Unity State’s Guit county killing a government commander and some soldiers while wounding others.
“He (Taban Deng) ordered Gen. Dor Manjur to attack Bil without the knowledge of Bilpam GHQ. Dor Manjur ordered Major General Riek Riek to attack SPLA IO forces in Bil payam of Guit simply because Taban fear Angelina Teny of gaining mass support from the Jikany Kiir of Guit,” he said in the statement.
