By William Madouk Garang
The SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction and Agwelek have dismissed claims that there were new clashes between forces allied to Gen. Simon Gatwech and that of Gen. Johnson Olony in which Tunga military base was recaptured by Kitgwang.
Yesterday, the Spokesperson of Gatwech, Alfred Gach Thot rubbished the claim, confirming that there was no any military confrontation between Kitgwang and Agwelek forces.
“Not true, there was no fighting that has happened within us,” Thot told No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper.
In an inclusive interview, the head of Agwelek delegation in Juba, Paul Achot Achobek stressed that there were no clashes, except last week in Wij Panyikang County.
“Right now, there are no clashes. What they [citizen] get from social media is baseless just an allegation, [but] there is no actual clashes,”Achobekl stated.
“There are no clashes and there was no clash today but two days ago there were clashes not in Tunja town but in an area called Wij Panyikang,” he noted.
According to Achobek, Wij Panyikang’s attack by ‘anti-peace’ elements resulted to death of four soldiers and three others were left with injuries from Agwelek forces.
Mr. Achobek stressed that they are serious in implementing the peace deal they signed with government but anti-peace elements are against it and they keep backstabbing.
“These elements who came and attacked us last week are against this initiative and they want regime change”.
“I would like to assure people of South Sudan that we will not allow these elements to continue disturbing our people and their peaceful living” he said.
On Sunday, there was a report that breakaway SPLA-IO Kitgwang faction reportedly retook control of their military base in Tunja of Upper Nile state that was captured by Olony’s forces last month.
“After that, several troops on both sides were killed and there was a silence and then we saw General Johnson Olony’s forces retreating northward and today we saw the forces of General Gatwech Dual inside the base and there is no fighting,” anonymous resident was quoted as saying.
Separately, a purported senior member of General Olony’s Agwelek in Khartoum said their forces have tactically withdrawn from the village and it was a matter of time before they could return in order to retake the town from Gatwech’s forces.
“Yes our forces have moved out of the village and this is there in the military doctrine that when you are in a very bad standing in a battle over an area, you pull out tactically. This is what our forces have done exactly and it is a matter of time before we return to flash them out,” the official said.