Some Corrections on PaanLuel Wel’s “Reflection on the Tragic Fall of Kapoeta in 1992”
4 min readBy Truth-hurt
March 30, 2015 (SSB) —- Great article Paan Luel Wel! Just a slight correction to one or two of the facts in the following paragraph:
Cdr Dominic Dim Deng was the overall commander between Kapoeta – Narus road, he arrived in Narus (and made it his base) just before the falls of Kapoeta in 1992 after he lost track of the enemy in Northern Kapoeta.
And after the falls of Kapoeta, he moved to the border of Kenya (Kebase) with some of his guards for about a week before he returned to Narus upon learning that both Cdr Salva Kiir & Cdr Majak were moving towards Narus with enough forces.
Cdr Salva Kiir’s forces later made their way to Narus from Magos through Nyangie (had numerous ambushes on their way laid by militias) before he eventually joined Cdr Dominic in Narus togatehr with the then Captain, Majier Deng who was in charge of Narus at the time.
While Cdr Majak’s forces were moving separately after their tactical withdrawal from Kapoeta (he entered the town when it was almost taken) and was ordered to deploy his forces in Buna, Napotpot and Loyoro except Nagnak which was too close to Kapoeta.
Those areas were deserted by a combined forces of Red Army of Panyido and Koryom II (No blame here as there were a handful of them in those areas as the Red Army of Dimmo or Maruong Akipie that occupied those places earlier was taken to Juba or Bor) after Kapoeta felt into enemy hands except Narus which had a handful of teachers and Cdr Dominic & Captain Majier’s guards who were left behind to protect some important facilities in there.
Immediately after that, Cdr Salva Kiir established his base in Narus then later appointed Cdr Dominic Dim as overall commander of the area and was deputised by Cdr Majak Agoot (according to their seniority) who made Buna his base along with other SPLA officers such as Akot Mazie, Peter Parnyang, Magoor Ajang among others.
With regard to Cdr Acuil Tito, he was sent to us in Buna but unfortunately, some of us if not all gave him rough time at the parade mainly due to his lack of good strategies to defend Kapoeta from the enemy in the first place plus his poor mismanagement of relief foods during his time when he was in charge of Kapoeta from 1990 till Kapoeta felt to the enemy.
I hope anyone who might have lived in Kapoeta during those times can understand what I am talking about here. Luckily, our request to see Cdr Acuil’s back was passed to Chairman, John Garang as he himself was in the area and agreed to send him somewhere else but not Buna. And I believe that was how Cdr Acuil found himself in Kapoeta – Torit road area because we haven’t heard of him after that.
Our forces in Buna at the time comprised of three task forces namely, Pibor forces of Mobile Force, Isoke’s cadet officers (new recruits & former SPLA officers) as well as Red Army or were negatively referred to as Commando with black short (commando a juan macar) by some elements of other forces.
Believe it or not those kids (mostly all of them were underage) did exceptionally well not to mention the fact that they were part of the groups who constructed Chukudum – Narus road which became the only lifeline for the SPLA forces around Kapoeta, Torit among others.
Thank you,
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