Fighting in Lakes as Gelweng commander unsuccessfully tried to join Kerbino Wol
South Sudan rebels hold up guns in Yondu, the day before an assault on government army in the town of Kaya, on the border with Uganda, South Sudan, August 25, 2017. (Photo credit: REUTERS)
June 11, 2020 (SSNN) – Fighting has erupted in South Sudan’s Lakes state after a tribal commander declared his intention to join Kerbino Wol, a former national security detainee who formed a new rebel group last week.
The fighting, residents said in Yirol, took place at Amokpiny, a village in Rumbek East County.
One resident said the fighting erupted after Gelweng commander, Monydiar Maker, decided to join Kerbino Wol and South Sudan’s division six commander subsequently ordered for Maker’s arrest.
“The fighting started today at 05:25 PM in Amokpiny. It is a village in Rumbek East. Monydiar, the commander of Gelweng militia group had declared in the day that he was joining Kerbino Wol who said he will form a movement against Kiir,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Another source said Monydiar was killed – along with seven women – in action and fighting had subsidized at the time the source spoke to us.
“The fighting has stop. Monydiar and seven women have been killed. We don’t know if the army is in control of the whole area but generally, there is a sense that the army is in control of the situation,” the source added.
Monydiar’s group, the Gelweng militia, is one of two prominent militia groups who were accused by the African Union in a 2015 report of participating in the 2013 Juba massacre in which thousands of Nuer were killed.
Facebook Comments