SPLM/A Kit Gwang faction sign peace agreement with government

Gen. Gatwech (L) and Olony (R) inking the peace deal. (Courtesy photo)

The SPLM/A breakaway Kit Gwang faction led by Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual on Sunday signed a peace agreement in Khartoum with President Salva Kiir’s government.  

The agreement was signed by President Kiir’s security advisor Tut Gatluak, the Director-General of the National security’s Internal Security Bureau, Akol Koor, and the SSPDF Military Intelligence Director General Stephen Marshal on behalf of the South Sudan government while Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual and his deputy Gen. Johnson Olony inked the deal on behalf of their SPLM/A-IO breakaway Kitgwang faction.

General Samshedin al Kabashi of the Sudan Supreme Council signed as a guarantor and mediator.

The signatories and guarantors said the peace agreement will ensure the end of the conflict in South Sudan.

Security advisor Tut Gatluak said President Salva Kiir is committed to implementing the agreement.

“The war is over and you can now come back and live with your people and bring peace and this is the feeling of President Kiir too,” Gatluak said. “And because of the peace we have signed today, we are ready for the entry of your forces into the national army.”

Gen. Gatwech appreciated President Kiir for embracing peace and said he will return to Juba soon.

“We have shaken hands over this peace deal and the issue now is about security arrangements. When the security arrangements are implemented, we will be in Juba in three months,” Gen. Gatwech said. “We are going to see if there is a true implementation of the security arrangements or if it will be like the one of 2018 in which we were cheated. If they deceive us, I am also going to deceive them.” 

For his part, Gen Johnson Olony asked the people of South Sudan to embrace and implement the agreement.

“We have signed the peace agreement and God willing; we will go to Juba,” he said.

Gen. Kabashi who signed on behalf of Sudan reiterated the commitment of his government to implement and see the success of the agreement.

“Everything which affects South Sudan affects us in Sudan too,” he said.

According to the agreement, the Government of South Sudan will facilitate the establishment of coordination offices in Juba, Malakal, and Bor to assist the process of assembling and reintegration of the Kit Gwang faction.

The peace agreement also guarantees the implementation of the security arrangements, a permanent ceasefire, grants the Kit Gwang faction amnesty, containment, and reintegration of the breakaway SPLA-IO forces into the SSPDF within three months among others.