Sep 19, 2021 — The leadership of the disgruntled SPLM/A-IO faction under the chairmanship of the former Chief of General Staff, 1st Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual and Lt. Gen. Johnson Olony Thabo, has called off its leadership conference that was to be organized in Magenis and apologized to their supporters for failing to meet their expectations.
In a letter extended to Nyamilepedia, Gen. Gatwech explicitly states that his leadership can’t afford to hold the conference anymore due to shortage of financial resources and therefore they have decided to postpone it until further notice.
“Due to shortage of the financial resources, the military command leadership decided to postponed the Kitgwang leadership conference until further notice.” Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual stated in his memo.
“My apology for the inconvenience” Gen. Gatwech continued.
The Kitgwang faction declared their full intention to overthrow their leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny on August 4th, 2021 and have since been embroiled in a series of skirmishes fighting off Machar’s forces since August 7th, 2021 as they try to hold onto Magenis, their main headquarters in Northern Upper Nile.
Lt. Gen. Gatwech has been the Chief of Staff for Dr. Riek Machar since the formation of the SPLM/A-IO in April 2014; however, the two leaders have had differences since Machar dragged him to Juba in 2016 to implement a shaky peace deal that backfired in less than 5 months and forced them to trek on foot to DR Congo.
Informed by the first narrow escape, Gatwech and Olony refused to be dragged to Juba by Machar again without proper security arrangements and since Machar’s return to Juba they held their grounds in Magenis and turned down lucrative appointments into the revitalized transitional government of national unity citing lack of political will from President Kiir to implement the peace agreement in letter and spirit.
Gatwech’s forces have been attacked by Machar’s forces 5 times since August 7th leading to the killing of one of their senior general, Gen. Gatwech Nyagor, and with this latest turn of events it remains unclear how they will fund and run their rebellion.
Gen. Gatwech is trying to form alliances with other rebel groups but nothing significant has materialized so far.
