South Sudan Vice President Dr. Machar Says the Country’s Top Rebel Leader, George Athor Deng Dut, Has Been Killed
9 min readBy MICHAEL ONYIEGO, Associated Press.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan’s military forces killed the country’s highest-profile rebel leader, a man who posed a significant security threat to peace inside the world’s newest country, an official said Tuesday.
Rebel leader George Athor was a former lieutenant general in South Sudan’s military during the 1983-2005 civil war with Sudan. But Athor launched a rebellion after losing an April 2010 election for governor of Jonglei state, a vote he maintained was rigged.
Troops loyal to Athor fought repeatedly with South Sudanese forces over the last year, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
South Sudanese officials on Tuesday leveled serious charges against Athor, saying he had been making contacts with the region’s most insidious rebel group — the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA — and that officials in Sudan’s capital Khartoum had been financing him.
South Sudan has repeatedly accused its northern neighbor, Sudan, with providing support and assistance to Athor and other rebel groups. Sudan has denied those accusations.
South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar, in announcing Athor’s death on Tuesday, said Athor had been in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda recently in a drive to recruit fighters. Col. Philip Aguer, South Sudan’s military spokesman, said Athor was making militant contacts in preparation for a Christmastime attack.
Aguer said one South Sudanese soldier and one of Athor’s men were also killed during the exchange on Monday evening.
Aguer said Athor’s death was a major victory for the people of South Sudan which “has deprived Khartoum of an important tool.”
Athor was the last major rebel leader still active in South Sudan.
South Sudan has tried repeatedly to broker peace with Athor. During South Sudan’s independence ceremony from Sudan in July, President Salva Kiir offered amnesty to all rebels fighting in the country, including Athor.
Machar said Tuesday that the deal still stands.
“I call on all who rebelled against the government to lay down their arms and join the process of peace and development,” he said.
Even as South Sudan faces the threat of military action from its northern neighbor, John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, an advocacy group that does work in Sudan, said Athor’s death highlights the urgent need to address divisions within South Sudan.
“Another Athor will emerge tomorrow unless real progress is made in providing political and economic opportunities that feel marginalized in the process of independence,” Prendergast said.
Athor’s death will likely be seen as a victory for South Sudan, which has been plagued by rebel movements for years. But Jonah Leff, a Researcher for the Small Arms Survey, a security analysis group working in South Sudan, said he does not believe Athor’s death will solve the rebel problem.
“I do not believe that an SPLA policy of assassinating rebel militia leaders is an effective one,” said Leff. “The killing of Athor is likely to embolden many of his followers as well as other militias, including the SSLA and the Shilluk rebels in Unity and Upper Nile, respectively.”
The South Sudan Liberation Army, or SSLA, is comprised of forces formerly loyal to rebel leader Gatluak Gai, who was killed in July by his own men, weeks after accepting South Sudan’s offer of amnesty.
The SSLA operates in South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity State, and could become a major problem for the government.
“In fact,” said Leff, “the SSLA has been in serious unification talks with Athor, whose death is certain to create a vacuum of power in Jonglei, allowing the SSLA to rise to prominence.”
Athor’s death comes just days after the SSDM and SSLA issued a joint statement accusing South Sudan of attempting to assassinate him. The statement — issued Dec. 13 — said a man dressed as a priest and a woman were found carrying guns as they attempted to meet Athor. According to the statement, the two alleged assassins claimed to represent the Anglican Church, which has attempted to broker peace between Athor and the government of South Sudan.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
South Sudan claims death of rebel leader
December 21, 2011
CNN)— The newly independent Republic of South Sudan has announced the death of a prominent renegade rebel leader.
Lt. Gen. George Athor and one of his soldiers were killed in a clash with the country’s military, Vice President Riek Machar told reporters Tuesday. He said they had infiltrated South Sudan on their way out of Rwanda via the eastern border area of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
The claim has not been verified by an independent body.
A dissident commander of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, Athor rebelled after losing a gubernatorial election in the spring of 2010. He called for numerous orchestrated clashes after the announcement of his defeat.
“Under the banner of his South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM) and its military wing, the South Sudan Army, Gen. Athor was considered the most powerful post-election insurrectionist” the Geneva-based independent research project said in its 2011 report on what was then southern Sudan.
The Small Arms Survey says that although both the government of South Sudan and the SPLA have alleged that Athor received support from the Sudan government in Khartoum, there is no independent evidence to support these claims.
The death of Athor was not part of a government plan, because the government had declared general amnesty to all rebel groups in South Sudan, the vice president told reporters. The government is appealing to all of Athor’s followers to heed the amnesty, which was declared on July 9 when the country celebrated its independence from Sudan.
John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, said the reported death of Athor “highlights the urgency with which the South Sudan government, with international support, must address inter-communal divisions within the South. Another Athor will emerge tomorrow unless real progress is made in providing political and economic opportunities that feel marginalized in the process of independence.”
The Enough Project works to expose genocide and crimes against humanity.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/20/world/africa/south-sudan-rebel-leader/
South Sudan forces say kill rebel leader Athor
* Rebel leader was making a recruiting run-army
* Athor’s group says can not confirm his death
* Militia was seen as threat to new nation’s stability (Adds Enough Project statement, background on Athor)
JUBA, Dec 20 (Reuters) – South Sudan’s army said on Tuesday it had killed a prominent rebel leader near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, dealing a blow to insurgents who have threatened the security of the newly-independent nation.
South Sudan split away from Sudan in July under a peace deal that ended decades of civil war with Khartoum, but the young, oil-producing country has struggled with multiple armed uprisings.
George Athor, who left the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) saying the country’s dominant party had rigged an election last year, was killed in Morobo County in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria state, SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said.
“George Athor was killed in Marobo County when he tried to enter South Sudan from Congo. He met with a clash with an SPLA patrol unit,” Aguer said, adding that one SPLA soldier was killed and another wounded in the fighting.
Athor was returning to recruit more soldiers, Aguer said. He did not say when the clash took place.
The rebel leader was considered one of the biggest threats to South Sudan’s stability, although reports have varied widely over the size of his force, which remained focused in remote border areas between Jonglei and the oil-producing Upper Nile.
South Sudan’s army said in February Athor may have had around 2,000 men under his command, while Athor has claimed to lead a force of thousands capable of taking major centres across the country.
The army blamed forces aligned to Athor for an attack last month that killed nine people, including six civilians, in Jonglei – the site of an oil field controlled by France’s Total .
South Sudan has accused Khartoum of flying in arms and cash for Athor’s troops in an attempt to destabilise the country. Khartoum dismisses the charges.
The old civil war foes have regularly accused the other of backing rebel groups on either side of the tense and poorly-drawn border since South Sudan’s independence, complicating talks over unresolved issues like debt and oil.
James Nuot Puot, a spokesman for Athor’s group, said he could not confirm the reports of his commander’s death. Calls to Athor’s satellite phone were not answered.
John Prendergast, co-founder of the activist group Enough Project said Athor’s reported death did not mean an end to South Sudan’s divisions.
“Another Athor will emerge tomorrow unless real progress is made in providing political and economic opportunities” to groups that feel marginalised, he said in an emailed statement.
Aguer said he believed Athor’s death would be a major blow to the rebel militia but they would likely continue to fight. “The rebellion will not end, but it will be weaker,” he said.
About 2 million people died in Sudan’s civil war, waged for all but a few years from 1955 to 2005 over oil, ideology, religion and ethnicity. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
SPLA besiege George Athor in C. Equatoria: SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer
December 20, 2011 (JUBA) — A Sudan People’s Liberation Army unit has besieged rebel leader George Athor and his forces in Central Equatoria’s Morobo county area, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Phillip Aguer, the army spokesman said today.
- FILE – Southern Sudan rebel leader George Athor, looks on during a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011 (AP)
This development comes merely a day after two rebel groups currently operating in the newly independent South Sudan issued a joint statement claiming they had successfully aborted an alleged attempt to kill Athor last Tuesday.
The renegade rebel leader recently threatened recently to wage more attacks in South Sudan, including his forces’ intention to capture Bor, capital of Jonglei state. The move came after the failure of secret talks with Juba held in Nairobi last November.
(ST)
http://www.sudantribune.com/SPLA-besiege-George-Athor-in-C,41039
South Sudan’s rebel leader George Athor “killed”
December 20, 2011 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese rebel leader and renegade general, George Athor, has been killed, announced the country’s Vice-President Riek Machar Teny in a press conference held in the capital Juba today.
Earlier in the day, Athor was reported to be under siege by South Sudan’s army, SPLA, in Morobo country in Central Equatoria state.
- Southern Sudan rebel leader George Athor (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)
According to Teny, Athor was killed yesterday, Monday, in Morobo near the capital, Juba.
The circumstances of his alleged death are unclear at the moment but Athor’s rebel group on Sunday claimed it had aborted an attempt to kill him.
One of Athor’s wives told Sudan Tribune she suspects her husband may have been killed because she lost contact with him since Monday.
Athor has been leading a rebellion against the government of South Sudan since he defected from the SPLA in 2010 after he was announced to be the loser of gubernatorial elections in Jonglei State, where he stood as an independent candidate.
His rebellion has been one of the biggest security threats that faced South Sudan since it became an independent country this year.
Hundreds of people have been killed this year in clashes between Athor’s men and the SPLA.
More updates to follow
(ST)
http://www.sudantribune.com/BREAKING-NEWS-South-Sudan-s-rebel,41044
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