South Sudan opposition break-away group shifts allegiance to President Kiir

A South Sudanese break-away military group of the main opposition party, the Sudan People Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), has shifted allegiance to President Salva Kiir in what seems to be a violation of the 2018 peace agreement.

In a peace signing agreement event witnessed by a member of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council Shams Elden in Khartoum on Sunday, three prominent SPLA-IO military generals Simon Gatwech Dual, Johnson Olony, and Thomas Mabor Dhoal pledged allegiance to Kiir.

The generals are the founders and the heads of the recent SPLA-IO breakaway group known as Kitgwang Declaration, who have in the past described the Riek Machar, the SPLA-IO chairman, and First Vice President, as a failed leader.

In the peace accord signed by the three generals and President Kiir's Special Envoy for Sudan Tut Gatluak, who also doubles as the National Security Affairs Advisor, the two parties claim they shall be bound to provisions of the 2018 revitalized peace deal.

“The President Kiir Mayardit shall issue amnesty to the leadership and forces of SPLA-IO Kitgwang as previously done on August 8, 2021. The parties should commit themselves to the ceasefire agreement signed in Khartoum in 2018.