Mayom County | |
|---|---|
  Location in South Sudan | |
| Coordinates: 9°13′27″N29°10′00″E / 9.224042°N 29.166706°E | |
| Country |  South Sudan |
| State | Unity |
| Headquarters | Mayom |
| Government | |
| • County Commissioner | Col.John Madeng Gatduel Nhial |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,646 sq mi (4,263 km2) |
| Population (2017 estimate [1] ) | |
| • Total | 180,314 |
| • Density | 110/sq mi (42/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (CAT) |
Mayom County is an administrative region in Unity of South Sudan to the west of Bentiu. The county headquarters is Mayom town. [2]
Mayom County is in the northwest of Unity State. The largest town is Mayom. Other towns are Tam, Mankien and Wang-kay. Large villages include Rier, Thargana, Buoth, Wicok and Toic. [3] Mayom lies in the Block 4 oil concession to the south of the Kaikang oilfield. [4]
Around 1982, encouraged by the Sudan government, Baggara people started to arrive in the Mayom region from the north, armed with automatic rifles. That year the Baggara stole about 500 cattle from the Nuer and Dinka people. [5] The Second Sudanese Civil War began in 1983. In March 1985 there was a fight between Baggara raiders and combined SPLA and Anyanya II forces led by Major Bul Nyawan in which the Baggara were defeated, leading to relative peace between the Baggara and Nuer. [6] In 1987 and 1988 the region was hit by famine due to the conflict between the army, Anyanya 2 and SPLA which had led to villages being burned, mass killings and widespread displacement of people. Mayom was presumably badly hit, but there were no relief agencies to record the progress of the famine. [7]
During the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005) many residents of Mayom County had obtained AK-47 automatic rifles, hand grenades and other type of small-arms. In preparation for the January 2011 referendum there was a drive for disarmament. 1,700 guns were handed in to the authorities. County Commissioner Colonel John Madeng Gatduel said this cleared the way for peaceful negotiations between payams (administrative units) that had been engaged in conflict in the past. He noted however that there was a risk of violence spilling over from Warrap State to the east, which had not yet disarmed. [8]
In the January 2011 referendum 98 people voted for unity with Sudan while 80,364 voted for secession. [9]
On 11 April 2011 Major General Peter Gadet Yak, formerly of the SPLA and now of the South Sudan Liberation Army, published the Mayom Declaration. He denounced government by the "current corrupt gangs in Juba" and called for the government of Southern Sudan to be replaced by a national broad-base transitional government. [10] Officials accused the Khartoum government of supporting Gadet's militia and others in an effort to destabilize the country prior to independence. [11] An SPLA spokesperson said the declaration was not written in Mayom but in Khartoum by Sudan Armed Forces intelligence working with the rebels. [12]
In April 2011 there was a clash in Mayom County between Misseriya tribesmen from the north and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) troops. A Misseriya spokesman denied links to rebel militias in the region, saying "We attacked an SPLA base to return 1,700 cows that the SPLA had stolen from us". According to the spokesman 11 of his tribe died and 22 were injured during the attack. Earlier that month, SPLA troops had fought with Gadet's rebels in a Mayom County village the militia had taken over and then burned, with twenty army troops losing their lives. [13] Following that clash, the Unity state government ordered all north Sudanese workers in the oilfields to leave the state at once. [14] [15]
Later in May 2011 there was fighting between the SPLA and Gadet's rebel militia. The Mayom Commissioner Charles Machieng Kuol reported that 7,800 homes had been burnt down in the Loath, Wanam and Bora bomas, subdivisions of the county, accusing the SPLA of causing the damage. SPLA Major-General Koang Chuol said the damage was caused by cross-fire in the fighting. [11] Charles Machieng was told to apologize for his comments. When he refused, on 30 June 2011 the state governor Taban Deng Gai gave him the sack. [16] Machieng, a son-in-law of the governor, had been appointed in place of John Madeng Gatduel on 7 March 2011. The appointment had been criticized by the Bull Nuer community of Mayom county since they had not been consulted. [17]
The South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM) is an armed group that operates in the Upper Nile Region of South Sudan. The group's creation was announced in November 1999 by people of the Nuer ethnicity who were in both the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the government-allied South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF) gathered in Waat. The SSLM was declared to be unaligned in the Second Sudanese Civil War, then entering its sixteenth year. The name "South Sudan Liberation Movement" was decided upon the next year, borrowing from the earlier Southern Sudan Liberation Movement, which existed in the 1980s.
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who served as the First Vice President of South Sudan.
The Messiria, known also under the name of Misseriya Arabs, are a branch of the Baggara ethnic grouping of Arab tribes. Their language is Sudanese Arabic. Numbering over one million, the Baggara are the second largest ethnic group in Western Sudan, extending into Eastern Chad. They are primarily nomadic cattle herders and their journeys are dependent upon the seasons of the year. The use of the term Baggara carries negative connotations as slave raiders, so they prefer to be called instead Messiria.
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant of the Second Sudanese Civil War, led by John Garang. After Garang's death in 2005, Salva Kiir was named the SPLA's new Commander-in-Chief. As of 2010, the SPLA was divided into divisions of 10,000–14,000 soldiers.
Gabriel Gatwech Chan, more commonly known by the nickname Tang-Ginye or Tanginye meaning "long pipe", was a Nuer and a commander in various primarily Nuer rebel militias in South Sudan. General Tanginye led a southern border militia allied to the Khartoum government during Sudan's civil war. Members of the Sudanese armed forces loyal to Tanginye in Malakal clashed with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2006, killing about 150 people, and in 2009 in breach of the peace deal. In April 2011, clashes between his militia and the SPLA in the state of Jonglei killed at least 57 according to government officials. Shortly thereafter, Tanginye surrendered to SPLA forces and was placed under house arrest in Juba awaiting charges against him. During the South Sudanese Civil War, he allied with the SPLA-IO and later Lam Akol's militia, a Juba linked rebel group called the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and became its chief of staff. In January 2017 he visited a NDM-allied group, the Tiger Faction New Forces, in the Hamra area in the northern Upper Nile. In course of this visit, the Tigers were attacked by SPLM-IO-affiliated fighters belonging to the militia of John Uliny, and Tanginye was killed alongside most of the Tigers.
Peter Gatdet Yak or Peter Gadet was a Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) general who became the leader of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), a rebel movement in South Sudan.
Leer is a town in South Sudan. It is the capital of former Southern Liech State and Leer County. It is the most densely populated county in South Sudan.
Taban Deng Gai is a South Sudanese politician who has been one of the Vice Presidents of South Sudan in the unity government since February 2020. He served as the First Vice President of South Sudan from 23 July 2016 to February 2020. He was mining minister before being appointed as acting first vice president.
Paulino Matip Nhial, or Matiep Nhial, was a military leader and politician in South Sudan.
Gordon Kong Chuol is a former militia commander in South Sudan, who fought for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and later for the forces led by Riek Machar during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Mayom is a community in Unity State of South Sudan to the west of Bentiu. It is the headquarters of Mayom County.
Kerubino Kuanyin Bol was a Sudanese rebel leader who was one of the founders of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and one of the leaders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the Second Sudanese Civil War and was said to have fired the first shot in the conflict.
Tito Biel Chuor was a high-ranking commander in the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF) during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005).
Mankien is a community in Unity state in South Sudan. With a key location near the oil fields, the town changed hands more than once during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005). In April 2011 the town was once again the scene of conflict between militia and government troops.
Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's varied ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinka, who constitute about 35% of the population and predominate in government. The second largest are the Nuers. Conflict is often aggravated among nomadic groups over the issue of cattle and grazing land and is part of the wider Sudanese nomadic conflicts.
Block 5A is an oil concession in South Sudan. After oil field development began during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Block 5A was the scene of extensive fighting as rival militias struggled for control. Out of an original population of 240,000, an estimated 12,000 were killed or died of starvation and 160,000 were displaced by force. Production started in 2006. There is evidence that the environmentally sensitive marshlands beside the Nile are becoming polluted.
Koch County is an administrative division of Unity State, South Sudan, covering an area in the center of the state.
Gatluak Gai was a member of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) who rebelled after the April 2010 elections and led a renegade militia in the volatile Unity state of South Sudan.
Peter Par Jiek was a brigadier general of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and veteran of the Second Sudanese Civil War. In the course of that conflict, Par fought under Riek Machar with several rebel and pro-government groups, and eventually became a powerful militia commander in Unity State. In that region, he established his own fiefdom and gained some notoriety for his rivalry with another rebel leader, Peter Gadet. Even though he had followed Machar during the whole Second Sudanese Civil War until 2005, Par sided with President Salva Kiir Mayardit upon the outbreak of the South Sudanese Civil War in 2013. Leading pro-government counter-insurgency forces in Wau State since 2014, Par was eventually ambushed and killed by SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Machar in 2017.
The War of the Peters was a conflict primarily fought between the forces of Peter Par Jiek and Peter Gadet from June 2000 to August 2001 in Unity State, Sudan. Though both were leaders of local branches of larger rebel groups that were involved in the Second Sudanese Civil War, the confrontation between the two commanders was essentially a private war. As Par and Gadet battled each other, the Sudanese government exploited the inter-rebel conflict as part of a divide and rule strategy, aimed at weakening the rebellion at large and allowing for the extraction of valuable oil in Unity State. In the end, Gadet and Par reconciled when their respective superiors agreed to merge the SPDF and SPLA.