January 6th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by the country’s first vice president designate, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, condemned in a statement on Monday government’s Sunday attack on its base in Jekow.
Yesterday, residents in Maiwut and Jekow told this website that government forces attacked SPLA-IO military base in Jekow in violation of the revitalized peace deal and ceasefire agreement signed in 2018.
The fighting which resulted in displacement also killed and wounded an unidentified number of people from both sides.
“Yesterday, the 5/1/2020 the Government forces in Maiwut under Maj. Gen. James Ochan Puot launched aggressive attacks against the SPLA (IO) position in Jekow, Adar State but our gallant SPLA (IO) repulsed them with significant losses,” Puok Both Baluang, the SPLM-IO director of information and public relations said in a statement extended to Nyamilepedia this afternoon.
“The SPLM/SPLA (IO) condemns in strangest terms possible the SSPDF attack on Jekow,” the statement added.
Baluang said the “attack is a grave violation to the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), it is also a demonstration of bad faith on the part of government.”
“Turu cantonment site in Maiwut area is not operationalized because of continuous hostile activities of Maj. Gen. James Ochan Puot in Maiwut,” he added.
The statement further urged “CTSAMVM and JMCC to immediately investigate this violation which poses a threat to the implementation of the peace agreement.”
The main armed opposition group further reiterated its “full commitment to the implementation of the (R-ARCSS), in letter and spirit, as the only way to attain lasting peace in South Sudan.”
