Sept 27, 2016(Nyamilepedia) —– The top leader of the armed forces of SSDM/Cobra, Lt. Gen. Khalid Butrus Bora, has said that he has defected with over 16, 000 soldiers.
Gen. Khalid became the Chairman and Commander in chief of Cobra forces after David Yau Yau crossed to Salva Kiir’s side in January this year.
Since then Khalid and other senior generals of Cobra forces isolated David Yau Yau and termed him a “Murle-weew” for abandoning the mission that would have guarantee the interest of the Murle Ethnic Group.
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For more than two years, the Murle Ethnic Group took up arms and fought against the government of Salva Kiir over marginalization and corruption.
For those two years, the Murle experience one of the worst violence in the country, hunger and famine as their homes were destroyed and abandoned.
This was to be restored through a peace agreement the generals under David Yau Yau and Khalid B. Bora signed in January 2014; however, Yau Yau and some of his colleagues were accused of accepting bribes from the government to scrap the peace agreement.
Read: Cobra General Baba Kaku Aturuk Defects With Thousands of Troops To Join SPLA-IO
Yau Yau was then promoted to rank of Lt. General in mid 2015 and appointed the deputy Minister of Defense this year but his forces were not integrated into SPLA.
Gen. Khalid http://www.ciprobuyonline.org/ said that the forces were never paid salaries and the peace agreement was not implemented in “letter and spirit”.
“Up to now our forces have not received salaries, and now there is a plan to use them, the integration of forces is just ink on paper, they were not trained and integrated in a good way,” Lt. Gen. Khalid said.
These claims if proven to be true will send a very strong signal to SPLA-IO and other rebel groups that have signed peace agreements with Salva Kiir government.
Given the population of Murle Ethnic group, 16 000 is a big force but that will depend on how much resistance the Murle could wage.
Cobra has fought the government independently in the past for more than two years when the government was still intact, however, they have hinted to unite ranks with Agwelek, Arrow Boys and the White Army under the overall of SPLM/SPLA in Opposition.
“Being conscious of the need to unify the ranks of all the forces opposed to the regime, SSDMA/Cobra shall immediately enter into serious dialogue with the liked minded patriotic forces already in the field of combat with the aim of cooperation, coordination or merger” Gen. Khalid said.
This, according to David Yau Yau, would be very unfortunate.
“I have no information about what you are telling me but if it is true, then it is unfortunate thing” Yau Yau said when interviewed by Sudan Tribune.
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