February 18th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – Prominent South Sudan rebel and National Salvation Front (NAS) leader, Gen. Thomas Cirilo Swaka said he will not stop fighting against the government of President Salva Kiir which he said believes in the power of bullets.
Cirilo was speaking to the US-based Vice News on Friday.
“We’re not going to stop. If Juba thinks that without bullets we’re not going to be able to protect ourselves and our people they’re wrong,” Gen. Cirilo said.
He said he and his group as well as any other armed or unarmed opposition group want “a governance system which renders services to the people of South Sudan.”
South Sudan government and opposition groups signed a agreement in 2018 to end the ongoing brutal five-year old conflict which begun in December 2013 following a flare up of violence at a national convention for the ruling SPLM party igniting civilian massacres that led to the civil war.
NAS, like other armed and non-armed opposition groups declined to signed the agreement in September 2018 citing lack of commitment by IGAD mediators to incorporate federalism in the peace agreement as the system of governance during the transitional period.
