Southern Dissident Militias
Violence and insecurity generated by Southern armed groups and militias continue to overshadow South Sudan's post-independence period. Among the largest threats are insurrectionist forces in the oil-producing Greater Upper Nile region. These forces claim to seek systemic changes to the Southern government—or to overthrow it.
Several Southern dissident figures launched armed insurrections against the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) following the April 2010 elections, complaining of corruption and tribalism within the Southern government. Beginning in September, the SPLM/A embarked on serious military and political efforts to quell internal dissent within the South. Senior Southern leaders made multiple attempts to engage the insurrection leaders, including with an amnesty offer in late September from Southern president Salva Kiir to two key figures—George Athor and Gatluak Gai—in exchange for a ceasefire and a commitment to (re)join the SPLM/A. The amnesty also extended to Gabriel Tang Gatwich Chan ('Tang-Ginye'), a Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) major-general whose Southern militia, with assistance from Khartoum, fought the SPLA in the civil war.
Although Tang-Ginye agreed to join the SPLA in October 2010, he first returned to Khartoum and then allegedly arrived in Jonglei in mid-January with new arms and uniforms provided by SAF. In mid-April, Tang-Ginye was apprehended by SPLA forces in the riverside village of Kaldak, south of the Upper Nile state capital, Malakal, after a bungled integration effort turned into a deadly rebel-SPLA firefight. Tang-Ginye has since been held in military detention in Juba with no public word from the SPLA or the government on the integration or disarmament of his forces.
In the aftermath of the South's referendum in January 2011, a 'permanent ceasefire' deal with George Athor, the most important of the dissidents, fell apart. Fighting erupted between George's men and various Southern security forces on 9-10 February in Fangak county, Jonglei state, which Southern authorities say claimed more than 200 lives (mainly civilians). Elsewhere, in the oil-producing border states of Upper Nile and Unity, forces loyal to commander Peter Gadet, as well as separate groups composed of angry members of the minority Shilluk tribe, have remained active threats to the government's authority.
In June 2011, another rebel commander, David Yauyau of Pibor county in Jonglei state, began an amnesty and integration process with the SPLA, who brought him to Juba for talks on the details of this process. Little information on this process has been made public but the fact that it appears to have proceeded peacefully so far.
Weeks after South Sudan declared independence, the Unity state government began discussions with Gatluak Gai over a ceasefire deal to include his integration into the SPLA with some of his men. On 23 July 2011, shortly after signing a deal with the SPLA in the Unity state capital of Bentiu, Gatluak Gai was shot and killed in Koch county in mysterious and disputed circumstances.
Thus as of late July 2011, three of the five rouge commanders have been captured, killed, or seemingly neutralized with amnesty offers, though the status of the forces of Gatluak Gai and Gabriel Tang-Ginye is not yet known. Two of the most powerful commanders, Peter Gadet and George Athor, have so far been untempted by amnesty. The capacities of the SPLA and the Southern government to overcome them militarily remain uncertain.
Updated July 2011
Click below for information on the following insurrections:
Please visit the Arms and Ammunition Tracing Desk page for reports documenting weapons captured from dissident militias in 2011.
To see a map showing areas of insurrectionist activity in Jonglei and Unity states, click here.
In Upper Nile state, the SPLA has also aggressively suppressed armed Shilluk, who it claims fall under the direction of Lam Akol's SPLM-Democratic Change (DC) party. The SPLA has labelled the SPLM-DC a militia supported by the National Congress Party, although this link has not been demonstrated. Following the arrest of four victorious SPLM-DC candidates in Upper Nile after the April elections, the SPLA met Shilluk armed banditry in Fashoda county with widespread retaliatory violence. Lam and the SPLM-DC have denied any connection to the March violence in Upper Nile, which is led by a Shilluk militia leader and seems more linked to the grievances of this minority group than it is representative of broader North-South politics.
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