User:Wtuoygiel/sandbox

South Sudan People's Movement/Army (SSPM/A)
The South Sudan People's Movement /Army (SSPM/A) was founded by the former officers, NCOS and Men of the South Sudan Peoples Defence Force (SSPDF) and other organized forces on May 3, 2021 do hereby announce to the people of South Sudan, friends and the region that we have taken up arms against the Juba regime under the banner of the South Sudan People's Movement/Army (SSPM/A), for the following reasons:

1.   Governance crisis
The SPLM bureaucrats and kleptocrats with their allied remnants of the National Congress Party (NCP) in South Sudan do not only lack vision for the country, but determined to loot and kill anyone with opposing views.

The SPLM/NCP Kleptocrats, after having realized that they do not have a vision and required leadership for the state of South Sudan, have resorted to war, silencing dissidents, committing gross human rights violations and impoverishing citizens to remain in power for the next 100 years.

There is rampant insecurity across the country due to the governance vacuum and weak security institutions in the country. Civil populations resort to arming themselves for own protection and survival. Even in the nation’s capital Juba, ‘’ Unknown gunmen” (of course they are hired and known by the SPLM elites) have been kidnapping and killing innocent people at will.

Several peace agreements were signed to reroute the country to prosperity, but the same elites worked so hard to frustrate any meaningful effort that could stop the war, build a modern state and put the country on the path of development. The country is run by decrees that keep recycling the same kleptocrats who are robbing the country and its citizens with impunity. Since the independence, state and nation building efforts were sabotaged at will. Subsequently, South Sudan became a failed state just two (2) years following its independence despite massive petrodollars.

The army (SSPDF), Diplomats, and Civil Servants have gone for months, if not years without pay, yet a soldier receives a salary of an equivalent amount of four USD ($ 4) dollars a month. Widows, children of freedom fighters and wounded heroes who sacrificed their lives for the independence of South Sudan are the beggars you could find at every corner of South Sudan. They are left in limbo and denied medical care, clean water, school, food and shelter for their families.,

Consequently, most SSPDF forces if not all have deserted their units and mixed   with civil population--causing chaos and anarchy among communities in the countryside, indulged in inter-communal violence and bartering government ammunition and weapons with cattle. Those who are resilient and loyal to their units' resort to burning and selling charcoals in the nearby markets for their families' survival, and action which does not only undermine climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts but contributes to environmental destruction and desertification.

The rural population who financed and logistically supported the liberation war of 21 years for the independence of South Sudan do not enjoy the fruits and dividends of their struggle. The people of South Sudan did not only provide logistics but also offered their sons and daughters to fight the war. They did so, to enjoy freedom and public goods and services such as, clean water, food, electricity, education, health, shelter and security among others. However, what they got in return is poverty and dehumanization. Unfortunately, the SPLM elites do not seem to know the essence of public goods. They think when you become the President, a Minister and Governor among others, you own an institution – a term commonly accepted as “institutional grabbing”. Sarcastically, on the streets of South Sudan, the government of South Sudan (GOSS) has rightly been given a name as the government of self –service.

After deviating from the SPLM vision, the current SPLM elites have surrendered the SPLM Party and the governance of the nation to the NCP power brokers and kleptocrats.

2.  Economic crisis

The oil that is being produced in Upper Nile and Unity States respectively is enough to diversify the economy and finance the governments’ business. Instead, the Crude Oil has been sold in advance for several years by individuals within the SPLM elites for their personal gains. The elites have installed their families to market the crude oil and firmly control national parastatals such as Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet) and other financial institutions. For example, the Nilepet is exclusively run by relatives of President Kiir and his inner circle.

The SPLM elites are also running parallel markets for selling dollars in black market to undermine national currency, looted the central Bank of South Sudan to the core and depleted the foreign reserves.

Blessed with arable land and natural resources, South Sudan still imports almost everything ranging from beef, vegetables, fruits, maize and other consumable goods from neighboring countries. In a country with more than 40 million livestock, importing beef from another country is an absolute mockery and insult on the people of South Sudan. This is not surprising as the SPLM elites do not only lack vision to develop the economy but are incompetent nincompoops and whatever the people of South Sudan could do to give them a chance to change- they will even do more harm.

3.  Dire Humanitarian Situation
The SPLM elites have looted the country and displaced more than 50% of the population. Of the displaced, 2.5 million are refugees in neighboring countries and million more as internally displaced persons sheltering inside the United Nations Mission in South Sudan Protection of Civilian (POCs) sites. About 70% of the remaining population are in needs of humanitarian assistance.

4.   Destruction of Environment
The oil explorations and production have significant impacts on the environment. Water, pastures and the entire ecosystem of the people living along oil fields have been completely if not irreversibly damaged. Reports of fish, animals and people dying of strange illnesses have gone to deaf hears. The SPLM elites and NCP remnants are only interested in petrodollars. The 3% meant for oil producing communities to cushion them from the oil impact, has never reached those poor communities. Recent audit report by the Auditor General of South Sudan Audit Chamber highlighted broad daylight robbery of the money meant for the communities.

5.   Corruption
Public resources are being looted with impunity. A thief who is a sycophant and loyalist to the elite SPLM/NCP bureaucrats and kleptocrat is a patriotic. The oil has been flowing but no single road has been built. The only asphalt road which is 180 KM was built with the help of the American government. The elites have looted income the country generates. Yet they are not satisfied and have been engaged in undertaking massive debts. As if those are not enough, the elites went further by selling the crude oil underground to enrich themselves and their families to the detriment of the upcoming generations.

6.  Gross human rights violations
Thousands of innocent South Sudanese are languishing in prisons in different parts of the country and have no access to justice. Thousands more have been subjected to extrajudicial killings, many women and girls have been raped. Cases of sodomization has been also reported. These are acts of dehumanization that must be challenged with the available force they deserve.

7.  Stalled Revitalized Peace Agreement

President Kiir has failed to implement the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS). The President and the NCP orphans in Juba have tactically and technically delayed the implementation of the agreement so that the elections will not take place in time as stipulated in the agreement. In addition, the elites have deliberately frustrated and depressed the unified forces and denied them food and medicines to desert the training centers and cantonment sites to ensure no unified forces to graduate.

The elites are seriously engaging in bribing the opposition forces to join the SSPDF as sabotage to the implementation of security arrangement. The opposition leaders in Juba are under tactical arrest and some of their forces got frustrated and deserted.

The clashes and skirmishes that took place around Kajo-Keji, Yei, and Maban areas between the SSPDF and the SPLA-IO, the defection of the opposition forces to the government that was welcomed and encouraged by the SSPDF leadership, and the delay to constitute the hybrid court to try war criminals are indication of lack of political will by the government to fully implement the peace agreement.

8.  Entrenched Tribalism

President Kiir has planted hatred and tribalism among the people of South Sudan by deliberately divided South Sudan into 32 states, carving out and favoring Dinka areas from the rest of South Sudanese people and made them separate states from the rest of the people of South Sudan.

Dinka people live with their other South Sudanese brothers as neighbors for centuries, yet president Kiir tries to undermine and sabotage this beautiful harmony and coexistence.

In this regard, we have decided to fight for the regime change to establish a free prosperous, stable and federal democratic South Sudan governed on the basis of people - driven permanent constitution.

= The Root Causes of the Conflicts in the Republic of South Sudan = In 2005, the founding father of the SPLM/A, Dr. John Garang De- Mabior signed the comprehensive peace agreement with the Sudan government under Omar Hassan El Bashir, that ended the longest Sudanese Civil war that dated back to the mid-1950s, when Southern insurgents took up arms against the Islamist government in the Sudan who were oppressing the Southerners, the war which resulted in the deaths of more than 2 million, only between 1983 and 2005.

Unfortunately, Dr. John Garang was killed in a Uganda helicopter crash on 30/7/2005, and as a result of the tragic death of Dr. John Garang, President Salva Kiir who was an SPLA battlefield commander with little knowledge of the democratic governance and rule of law, was shortly installed to lead the South Sudan, home to over 12 million people drawn from 64 tribes or ethnic groups with diverse cultures, religion and languages.

Kiir appointed his longtime rival Dr. Riek Machar as his 1st vice president. Both leaders (Kiir/Riek) failed to meet the expectations of the people of South Sudan who were fighting for freedom, justice and equality because they felt they were being oppressed by the Arabs, but now the oppression of Kiir/Riek is worse than the oppression of the Arab.

The South Sudanese people expected Kiir and Riek to guide them towards a genuine democratic system of governance in the country. They (Kiir/Riek) failed to establish a viable state and to build vital institutions right away from the independence of the republic of South Sudan. The only institutions that exist in South Sudan are the army (SSPDF) and the national security forces which are predatory institutions.

After being in the presidency for two years after the independence of the republic of South Sudan, the two leaders (Kiir/Riek), revealed their own true colours of Kiir being a demi – dictator and Riek a vicious self –aggrandizing who care for their own selfishness.

In 2013, Kiir and Riek squabbled in the SPLM/A about who was going to be the leader of the SPLM/A, with Kiir accusing Riek Machar of attempting a coup, the move which plunged the country into a civil war which caused a battle between the ethnic Dinka and Nuer in the presidential guard division. The notorious recruited Dinka paramilitary known as Maithiang –Anyor and other non –civilized armed Dinka civilians in Juba took the law into their own hands, hunted down ethnic Nuer and targeted them in the capital Juba.

The fighting swiftly spread across the country causing serious destruction in the country with civilians of either ethnic Dinka and Nuer being targeted on ethnic basis. Launching a full –scale civil war in the country that resulted in the death of nearly 400,000, and displacement of more than 2 million people. As a result, Riek formed his own movement the Sudan people liberation movement/army (SPLM/A), to wage war of regime change and reform agenda in the country.

The two leaders got pressure from the international community and signed a power – sharing agreement in Addis Ababa in 2015, which was violated in 2016, by both leaders (Kiir/Riek) in tragic circumstances when fighting erupted in J-1 known as J-1 dogfight. Riek fled to Congo in a hot pursuit day and night for 41 days. Several of Riek’s fighters were killed on the way.

In 2018, the peace that was violated in 2016, as a result of J-1 fight, was revitalized under the auspices of the IGAD countries and another agreement was signed in Khartoum known as the revitalized agreement on the resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R –ARCSS)that reinstated Riek as 1st vice president and this time around with other more vice presidents which resulted in the formation of the fragile and embattled revitalized transitional government of national unity (RTGONU), and it was agreed controversially to hold elections in 2022 or 2023, with the recent reconstitution of the revitalized transitional national legislative assembly (RTNLA), while the formation of the unified command and graduation of the unified forces as stipulated in the provision of the security arrangement is far from over.

After staying in power for 16 years, and for his own political survival, Kiir has revealed his true color by indulging in a dictatorial and kleptocratic tendency and has created his own private paramilitary security apparatus to intimidate,  torture, execute people, lynch political dissidents for crimes they did not commit, too much corruption with impunity by embezzling or misappropriating or stealing state resources and millions of dollars from the U.S in form of grants and donations for fiscal year and other humanitarian assistances for over 12 million poor people of South Sudan who largely depends on the foreign aids.

Kiir has failed to resolve the proliferation of fire arms which is the cause of rampant inter – communal violence, revenge killing, rape, cattle raiding in the countryside.

Note: The poor governance, mismanagement of oil revenues and rampant corruption in the country have contributed to increase political and economic instability in South Sudan.

Operations
SSPM/A General Headquarters is Dajo, South Sudan