Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) Chapter in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has declared his intention to abandon the faction led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and joined the Kitgwang faction led by former SPLM-IO chief of staff General Simon Gatwech Dual.
Gen. Gatwech declared in early August that he was removing First Vice President Machar as leader of the main armed opposition group, declaring himself ‘interim’ Chairman and Commander in Chief of the SPLM-IO following a three-day gathering of opposition commanders in Magenis.
Since then, senior SPLM-IO commanders and political leaders have been switching sides from the Machar-led SPLM-IO faction to the newly formed group led by General Simon Gatwech Dual. Prominent opposition politicians and military officers who joined Gatwech include Machar’s deputy Henry Odwar and people like Gen. Johnson Olony Thabo.
In a statement over the weekend, Moses Kbor George Koak, the head of the SPLM-IO Chapter in Khartoum said he and his team are no longer loyal to First Vice President Machar, but to the SPLM/SPLA (IO) faction led by General Simon Gatwech Dual accusing Machar of failing the main armed opposition group.
“Following deliberate consultations among the members of the SPLM-IO Khartoum chapter, we want to inform the public that we have decided to support the Kitgwang declaration under the chairmanship of 1st LT General Simon Gatwech Dual, deputized by General Johnson Olony Thabo,” he said in the statement extended to Sudans Post.
They said they left the SPLM-IO under Machar because under him, “organizational structures are not respected and this led to the disorganization of our great movement.”
“From the top to the bottom of leadership we were working opposite to our basic documents, which if followed strictly our movement would have been a safe haven for all South Sudanese who are desperately seeking for a real change, a change which is not mere theory but practical.
“Communication is very poor which is the cause of dissatisfaction among members of the movement. Managing the diversity within the movement is in big question and the most challenge under our former chairman PhD holder.
“We realized that we will never achieve anything under our former chairman, and peace will never reach any point under him while some elites are benefiting at the expense of others.
“Lack of transparency by the national offices of the movement toward other structures of the movement within and outside south Sudan.
The head of the movement is not giving consideration and care for the military side and other comrades whom they left behind and in cantonment areas and other places in the neighboring countries. “
