R.I.P Commander Lual Diing Wuol
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“Dear All. This is to inform you that we Lost Lt. Gen Lual Diing Wol famously known as Baba Africa or Landbar yesterday at around 5:00 Pm Yesterday at Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi. It took me time to announce his death because I was busy making some arrangement. I thank all people of South Sudan for their firm stand with us during this hour of tragedy. I would also like to appeal to our government and the opposition to allow the presence of all those who intend to mourn with us and put our political differences aside because my father was a man of all South Sudanese, Baba Africa was a lovely Father,Grandfather, uncle and comrade to all South Sudanese without discrimination. R.I.P Landbar all your proverbs will be missed by your people specially SPLA comrades but you did all a man can do to his people and Country. I would also like to appreciate All those South Sudanese who visited us in both hospitals Germany and Aga Khan.” Sultan Malong Diing
February 9, 2016 (SSB) — Garang left nothing to chance in his high-powered courtship of Gadhafi’s assistance. The survival of the movement and the fate of his people depended on his success in winning over Gadhafi, even for a brief period of time. Thus, Garang cobbled together a well briefed and amply prepared delegation led by Commander Lual Diing Wuol, then the SPLM representative to Tripoli.
Recounting the events of that effectual charm offensive to win over Gadhafi, Garang beamed that “we reached a good understanding with Gadhafi and so he gave us lots of arms and ammunition, including anti-aircraft missiles. We knew, of course, that his would be a temporary support because once Nimeiri was overthrown, this support would come to an end. So, we stockpiled a lot of arms and ammunitions. Having received these arms, we became very strong and began overrunning enemy camps; making ambushes and virtually annihilating military convoys and taking over all of their equipment.”
The SPLM/A, in a desperate strategic move to obtain arms and ammunitions from the Libyan government, played little dirty tricks too.
Commander Lual Diing Wuol, then based in Tripoli, Libya, described it this way:
“We explained to Al-Gadhafi that ‘central in SPLM/A’s ideology was the Third World Theory expounded in Al-Gadhafi’s Green Book.’ Al-Gadhafi was impressed. Once Al-Gadhafi was satisfied with the SPLM/A’s ideology, logistical support was pledged. The delegation came back to Addis Ababa to break the good news to the Movement’s leadership…the delegation members had studied Al-Gadhafi‘s Green Book on ‘Third World Theory’ and had used many quotations, which impressed the Libyan leader. Subsequently, arms and ammunitions were ferried daily to Bilpam and Bonga training camps.
When the Libyan commitment to supply logistics became evidently clear, the SPLM/A adopted a strategy: to graduate one battalion every month and each time the head of the Popular Bureau (Libyan Ambassador) in Addis Ababa was invited to attend the passing out of the new recruits celebration. Each time a battalion was graduating, the Libyan office in Addis Ababa sent large quantities of arms and ammunitions equal in number to the new graduates.
What the Libyans did not know or expected to know was that it was actually the same battalion that was graduating every month, just to secure more arms quickly…after a full year of this game, the SPLM/A had stockpiled enough to recruits and train a whole division to start a military campaign.” Arop Madut Arop, Sudan’s Painful Road to Peace: A Full Story of the Founding and Development of the SPLM/SPLA, 2006, p. 91; and as quoted in “Who Killed John Garang, by PaanLuel Wel, 2015, p. 184
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