Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition

Last updated
Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition
AbbreviationSPLM-IO
Leader Riek Machar
Chief of General Staffs Simon Gatwech Dual
Secretary-generalTingo Peter Regbigo [1]
Founded15 December 2013 (2013-12-15)
Split from Sudan People's Liberation Movement
Headquarters Pagak (until 2017)
Juba (2019–) [2]
Ideology
Political position Centre-left [3] [ better source needed ]
Colours  Green [4]
National Legislative Assembly
128 / 550
Council of States
27 / 100
Website
https://twitter.com/SPLMIO_Viva

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (abbreviated SPLM-IO), 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. [5]

Contents

The party and militia are led by Riek Machar. [6] [7] Machar also appointed General Simon Gatwech Dual as Army Chief of General Staff, deputized by the Deputy Chief of General Staffs for operations, training, political and moral orientation, logistics, administration and finance. [8] But in June 2021, Machar removed General Gatwech Dual from the position and appointed him into the Presidency as an adviser. [9] Gatwech however, rejected the new role and fired Machar as leader of the SPLM/A-IO and declared himself interim leader which led to fighting between Machar allies and those loyal to Gen. Gatwech formerly known as the Kit-Gwang faction throughout 2021. [10]

Etymology

During the Nasir convention in April 2014, the rebels in the South Sudanese Civil War were split on whether to maintain an affiliation with the ruling SPLM party. While Maj. Gen. Garouth Gatkuoth and many generals spoke against a SPLM affiliation, Angelina Teny and much of the leadership were in favor, leading Riek Machar to defer a final decision. The group decided on the provisional name SPLM-SPLA. [11] Shortly after the meeting, however, the media began to call the group the SPLM-in-Opposition, due to its opposition to the governing SPLM party.

Politics

By May 2018, the SPLM/A-IO had set up a "parallel bush government" in Upper Nile, rivaling the government in Juba. People in rebel-held areas no longer accepted South Sudanese currency which had lost its worth due to hyperinflation, and instead used United States dollars and Ethiopian birr. [12]

The party's ideology (or in some cases, the lack thereof) is essentially identical to the original SPLM, and only differs in the fact that the split between the two was mostly along ethnic lines, with the SPLM-IO representing the same Nuer ethnic group as leader Riek Machar.

In 2018, a South Sudanese critical writer and analyst Duop Chak Wuol questioned SPLM-IO's overall strategy, arguing that the movement's leadership pursued a political solution as part of its efforts to end the civil war without a good plan for its military wing. [13] [14]

Armed wing

SPLA-IO soldiers in April 2016. SPLA-IO soldiers (Juba - April 2016).jpg
SPLA-IO soldiers in April 2016.

The military forces of the SPLM-IO are known as "Sudan People's Liberation Army-in-Opposition" (abbreviated "SPLA-IO") and consist of deserters from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), alongside the private armies of rebel warlords and tribal militias. Those elements of the South Sudanese military that joined the SPLA-IO have done so to protect tribal interests or felt marginalized by the government due to their previous membership in the SSDF. [15] Despite attempts by Machar to attract other ethnic groups to his cause, the SPLA-IO is dominated by Nuer people. [16] Parts of the SPLA-IO are known to recruit child soldiers. [17]

For weapons to fight the South Sudanese civil war, the SPLA-IO used a "shadowy" network of arms dealers, of which little is known other than that most of the gunrunners appeared to be European. [18] A rare exception was the Franco-Polish arms dealer Pierre Dadak who was arrested on 14 July 2016 at his villa in Ibiza. [18] At his villa, the Spanish National Police Corps allege that they found documents showing he was negotiating to sell the SPLA-IO 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 PKM machine guns and 200,000 boxes of ammunition. [18] [19] [20]

In 2017 SPLA-IO lost the town of Pagak on the Ethiopian border during a government offensive.

Organization

The SPLA-IO did not have a formal military structure until the Pagak I conference in December 2014, after a year of war. Riek Machar created the following structure: [21]

Simon Gatwich as chief of general staff with the following deputies:

Along with the following commands:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riek Machar</span> South Sudanese politician (born 1952)

Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who has served as the First Vice President of South Sudan since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudan People's Liberation Movement</span> Political party in 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SPLA-Nasir</span> South Sudanese guerrilla organisation (1991–2002)

The SPLA-Nasir was a splinter faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a rebel group that fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Originally created as an attempt by the Nuer tribe to replace SPLA leader John Garang in August 1991, it gradually became coopted by the government. The break away of Riek Machar from SPLM/A resulted in Nuer ethnic group massacring Garang's ethnic Dinka from Bor in the Bor massacre in 1991. This split resulted in the 1994 National Convention of New Sudan in Chukudum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Sudan People's Defence Forces</span> Combined military forces of South Sudan

The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the military force 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Tanginye</span> Southern Sudanese rebel leader

Gabriel Gatwech Chan, better known by his nom de guerre Tanginye, was a South Sudanese military officer and rebel commander of various ethnic Nuer militant groups during the Second Sudanese Civil War and South Sudanese Civil War.

Peter Gatdet Yak, better known as Peter Gadet, was a South Sudanese general and SPLA commander who became the leader of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), a rebel movement in South Sudan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taban Deng Gai</span> South Sudanese politician

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.

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Sudanese Civil War</span> 2013–2020 civil war 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).

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.

Simon Gatwech Dual is a Sudanese rebel Major General who was born in around the late 1930s in what is today Uror County, Jonglei state, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pagak offensive</span>

The Pagak offensive was a major military operation by the South Sudanese government during the South Sudanese Civil War with the aim of capturing the strategic town of Pagak and the wider Maiwut County from Riek Machar's SPLM-IO rebels. Since the civil war's beginning, Pagak had served as headquarters and stronghold for the rebels, and its loss was believed to possibly greatly weaken the insurgency. A large part of the government forces that took part in the offensive are members of the SPLM-IO, a break-away group from Machar's movement that is loyal to First Vice President Taban Deng Gai. Though pro-government forces managed to capture Pagak on 6 August, their attempts to secure the surrounding areas proved unsuccessful. As result, the SPLA-held corridor between Mathiang and Pagak remained unsafe.

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 2014 retreat from Western Bahr el Ghazal, also called the long march north, was an unorganized withdrawal by hundreds of Nuer Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) deserters who sought to flee from Bahr el Ghazal to Sudan during the South Sudanese Civil War. After longstanding tensions between SPLA soldiers belonging to the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups escalated on 25 April 2014, leading to a massacre of Nuer soldiers at Mapel in Western Bahr el Ghazal, a large number of Nuer SPLA soldiers deserted to escape ethnic prosecution and loyalist SPLA forces. Though some deserters joined SPLM-IO rebels or surrendered to the government, a large number of them marched northward, joined by other SPLA defectors from Northern Bahr el Ghazal. After covering over 400 kilometres (250 mi), this trek eventually arrived in Sudan on 4 August 2014, where they were disarmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front</span> Political party and militant rebel organization in Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front is a political party and militant rebel organization that waged an insurgency against the Ethiopian government from 1993 to 2012. Formed by ex-officials of the Derg regime, the EUPF was mostly active in Ethiopia's Gambela Region as well as eastern Sudan and South Sudan. The group agreed to a ceasefire with the Ethiopian government in 2012, and officially ended its insurgency in 2016. The EUPF remains active, however, and its armed wing has reportedly been involved in the South Sudanese Civil War, although to what extent is disputed.

This article lists events from the year 2019 in South Sudan

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitgwang Declaration</span> South Sudanese peace process

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Athor's rebellion</span>

George Athor's rebellion was an uprising in the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region which lasted from April 2010 to December 2011. Organized by South Sudanese military commander and politician George Athor, the conflict mainly took place in the states of Upper Nile and Jonglei as well as some border areas.

References

  1. ↑ Young (2017), p. 38.
  2. ↑ "SPLM-IO to relocate headquarters to Juba". September 12, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 https://africaelects.com/south-sudan/ South Sudan - Africa Elects
  4. ↑ "Machar's SPLM-IO picks green as group's political colour". sudanspost.com. 3 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Niels Kastfelt, Religion and African Civil Wars, page 28.
  6. ↑ "S. Sudanese army abandons positions in Jonglei: rebel spokesperson - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan". Sudan Tribune. Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2016-07-24.
  7. ↑ "South Sudan opposition head Riek Machar denies coup bid". BBC News. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 2016-07-24.
  8. ↑ Cusack, Robert. "South Sudan rebels capture oil workers following $500mn contract". alaraby. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  9. ↑ "Gatwech no longer SPLA-IO Chief of Staff -Machar". Eye Radio. 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  10. ↑ says, Hon Thor Jok (2021-08-03). "General Gatwech removes Machar, declares himself interim SPLM-IO chairman". Sudans Post. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  11. ↑ Young, John (17 May 2024). "A Fractious Rebellion: Inside the SPLM-IO" (PDF). p. 43.
  12. ↑ Martell 2018, p. 271.
  13. ↑ Opinion: SPLM-IO's flawed peace strategy
  14. ↑ SPLM-IO's flawed peace strategy
  15. ↑ John Young (September 2015). "The SPLM-in-Opposition". Small Arms Survey . Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  16. ↑ Young (2017), pp. 36–40.
  17. ↑ Jason Patinkin (15 May 2018). "Ceasefire monitors accuse South Sudan forces, rebels of civilian killings". Reuters. Archived from the original on May 31, 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  18. 1 2 3 Martell 2018, p. 235.
  19. ↑ "AMMUNITION AIRDROPPED TO SPLA-iO FORCES IN SOUTH SUDAN" (PDF). Conflict Armament Research. Retrieved 2023-10-09.</
  20. ↑ "UN panel says Uganda, Ukraine and Egypt violating South Sudan arms embargo". Defense Web. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  21. ↑ Young, John (17 May 2024). "A Fractious Rebellion: Inside the SPLM-IO" (PDF). p. 46.

Works cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.