Simon Gatwech Dual (also spelled Simon Gatwitch) is a Sudanese rebel Major General who was born in around the late 1930s in what is today Uror County, Jonglei state, South Sudan.
He joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) under John Garang during the struggle against the Sudanese government, and broke away in 1991 when Riek Machar, Gordon Koang and Lam Akol formed the SPLA-Nasir faction. Gatwech led the Bor massacre in November 1991 which included many White Army fighters. [1] He joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) in 2013 when war broke out in Juba between forces loyal to the president Salva Kiir Mayardit and those loyal to the opposition led by Machar.
Gatwech was appointed as chief of general staff of the SPLA-IO on 21 December 2014 and remains in that position until he attempted to overthrow Machar on 4 August 2021 and returned to Juba following the August 2015 peace agreement between Mayardit and Machar. [2]
On 4 August 2021, Gatwech made a declaration, the Kitgwang Declaration, to announce the removal of Machar as the leader of the SPLM-IO and that he has assumed power as the new leader. [3] [4]
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who served as the First Vice President of South Sudan.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in 1983. On January 9, 2005 the SPLA, the SPLM and the Government of Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending the civil war. SPLM then obtained representation in the Government of Sudan, and was the main constituent of the Government of the then semi-autonomous Southern Sudan. When South Sudan became a sovereign state on 9 July 2011, SPLM became the ruling party of the new republic. SPLM branches in Sudan separated themselves from SPLM, forming the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North. Further factionalism appeared as a result of the 2013–2014 South Sudanese Civil War, with President Salva Kiir leading the SPLM-Juba and former Vice President Riek Machar leading the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition.
Dr.Lam Akol Ajawin, is a South Sudanese politician of Shilluk descent. He is the current leader of National Democratic Movement (NDM) party. He is a former high-ranking official in the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and subsequently became the Foreign Minister of Sudan from September 2005 to October 2007, when the Khartoum government offered the SPLA several other key ministries as part of a peace agreement.
The politics of South Sudan concern the system of government in the Republic of South Sudan, a country in East Africa, and the people, organizations, and events involved in it.
William Nyuon Bany Machar He was a Southern Sudanese politician who was also one of the founders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). He was appointed third in command after John Garang and Kerubino Kuanyin Bol. While he worked as a commander of the SPLA he lived in Itang, a small Ethiopian town in the Gambela Region.
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.
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.
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, also known as the anti-governmental forces (AGF), is a mainly South Sudanese political party and rebel group that split from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in 2013, due to political tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over leadership of the SPLM. Tensions grew between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar and South Sudan plunged into the South Sudanese Civil War.
John Uliny, also known as Johnson Olony, Johnson Olonyi, and John Olony, is a South Sudanese militia leader. He is a member of the Shilluk ethnic group. He has at various points in time been allied with the South Sudan Democratic Movement, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition and has led his own Agwelek Forces. He fought the South-Sudanese government in Upper Nile State between 2016 and 2018.
The Tiger Faction New Forces was a Shilluk militia that took part in the South Sudanese Civil War with the aim of reversing the division of South Sudan into 28 states in order to restore the territory of the Shilluk Kingdom per its 1956 borders. Led by Yoanis Okiech, the TFNF originally split from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in late October 2015 and subsequently started an insurgency against the SPLM government. In course of 2016, however, it also came into conflict with SPLM-IO rebels, leading to inter-rebel fighting which resulted in Okiech's death and the group's destruction in January 2017.
AmbassadorEzekiel Lol Gatkuoth is a South Sudanese retired diplomat and politician and a former Minister of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan, after having been appointed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Tuesday 2 August 2016.
The South Sudan United Front/Army (SS-UF/A), often just called South Sudan United Front (SS-UF), is a South Sudanese rebel group which has taken part in the South Sudanese Civil War.
The Kitgwang Declaration was a coup by South Sudanese rebel commander Simon Gatwech Dual on 4 August 2021, in which he replaced Vice President Riek Machar as leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition leading to a deadly conflict.
On 4 January 2018, SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual attacked the western parts of Juba, the capital of South Sudan. The raid was part of the South Sudanese Civil War. Once in Juba, the insurgents were reportedly joined by Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers who were loyal to deposed chief of staff Paul Malong Awan. Following heavy fighting lasting until early 5 January, the rebels retreated into the countryside. Even though Chan Garang assumed responsibility for the attack, both the South Sudanese government and the SPLM-IO condemned the clashes, with the latter claiming that its forces had not been involved at all.
Mabior Garang de-Mabior is a South Sudanese politician and activist and the eldest son of John Garang, the founder of the ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
Professor Elias Nyamlell Wako is a South Sudanese academic and politician.