Africa-Press – South-Sudan. A South Sudanese activist and community leader in Australia has said First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny and self-imposed SPLM/A-IO leader Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual see themselves equal in killing each other, a day after deadly clashes erupted between two different SPLA-IO factions loyal to each.
Machar is the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), while General Simon Gatwech Dual broke away in early August to form a different faction of the group after Machar removed him as the military chief of staff of the main armed opposition group leading to an internal fighting that has killed tens of people.
“Two great leaders, from the same community, see themselves equal in killing each other, for a simple disagreement, which might not constitute an equitable settlement to the conflict. If our leaders really fight for the interest of their people, they should never get angry, they should never threatened each other, they should never fight each for positions or ranks and they should always let their communities reconcile their internal conflict,” Ring Mayar, the president of South Sudanese Community in Victoria, Australia, wrote on his Facebook page.
“As our ordinary civilians, mothers, children, elderly die in Magenis and the impoverished families who made it out to higher grounds continue to suffer during this year flooding season in Upper Nile – death, hanger, water borne diseases and starvation stares many of them down,” the community leader who is also an activist, added.
Mayar said “Amid death and suffering of our people in Upper Nile region, leaders in conflict pride themselves to represent the force of good, against the forces of evil. Such self-pretense is, of course, wrong and ridiculous. It is also self-defeating to the cause of which both of you picked up arms to fight Juba Government.”
He urged the two opposition leaders “to put a complete halt to their military hostility in Magenis for the sake of saving lives and make peace a viable option for our people in Magenis and across South Sudan. I hope Juba and Khartoum governments work together to find a creative solution that will put the need of our people and the needs of both sides first.”
