A South Sudanese army general who switched allegiance and joined rebel forces under the leadership of the former vice-president Riek Machar said he had rejected separate peace talks with the government.
General Dau Aturjong Nyuol announced that he was defecting last month, calling on the South Sudanese people to join the fight to remove president Salva Kiir from power on the grounds that he had failed to properly manage the affairs of the country.
“They (the government) have continued to approach me for separate peace talks, using people they think would convince me,” Nyuol told Sudan Tribune in an exclusive interview on Sunday.
“They do not only want to localise the grievances for which I decided to resume [an] armed struggle, but it is a clear demonstration that they want to divide our leadership … So I rejected it and asked them to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that is where peace talks are [being] held,” he added.
Nyuol claimed the Kiir-led government was on the verge of collapse, saying the national army (SPLA) was in disarray.
“Until we decided to resume [an] armed struggle, our people were made to believe that certain people are untouchable … They (the government) made our people believe certain people are the problem of the country and the failure of the leadership,” he said.
sudantribune
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