May 22nd, 2018 (Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s former Chief of General Staff Gen. Paul Malong Awan has been excluded from the would-be transitional government proposed by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) presented to the South Sudan warring parties negotiating a peace deal in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Malong in April requested to be part of the on-going IGAD peace process but was not invited by the mediation. Previously, the South Sudan’s government expressed its opposition to the participation of the former army chief in the Addis talks.
The new peace proposal call for a power sharing between president Kiir’s government, Machar’s SPLM-IO, South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), Former Detainees and those parties in the government of President Kiir but did not mention Malong’s SSUF/A.
President Salva Kiir removed Gen. Paul Malong in May 2017 reportedly after the country’s head of the National Security Services Gen. Akol Kor advised Kiir to remove the powerful army chief after allegedly uncovering a coup plan by Malong who later denied the allegation.
Malong then fled Juba in protest of the dismissal heading towards his hometown Aweil but was forcefully returned to the capital Juba from Yirol and was subsequently put under house arrest by the South Sudanese leader until the Jieng Council of Elders successfully advised Kiir to release him on health grounds in November 2017.
Malong went to Nairobi and few days later the government made public audio tapes portraying Malong ordering his loyalists in the SPLA to attack Juba and Wau but Malong denied and accused the national security of falsely tarnishing his image.
However, in March 2018, Malong formed his own movement accusing president Salva Kiir of looting the country to Bankruptcy.
South Sudan descended into civil war in December 2013 after forces loyal to the country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardiit and his then Governor of Northern Bahr Al-Ghazal State Gen. Paul Malong Awan went door-to-door in the capital Juba killing civilians belonging to the Nuer ethnic group sparking a nation-wide protests from top army generals from the Nuer leading to a civil war.
A peace agreement signed in August 2015 by President Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar and negotiated under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) in presence of Troika and other international observers collapsed in July 2016 following fighting at the presidential palace in Juba “J1” reportedly after President Kiir ordered a failed attempt to arrest the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar.
