South Sudan’s Kiir survives coup

KAMPALA- Three Ugandans are reported among several killed in South Sudan in clashes between SPLA factions following a “contained” coup against President Salva Kiir yesterday.

The president appeared on TV unusually dressed in combat fatigue, and in a short statement, declared a state of emergency and imposed indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew on the capital, Juba.

Former Vice President Riek Machar, whom he fired in a surprise July dissolution of the executive, masterminded the coup, the president said, adding: “I would like to inform you that your government is in full control of the security situation in Juba. I promise you that Justice will prevail.”

The Sudan Tribune publication while quoting senior security and government officials, reported that the skirmishes broke out after Gen Kiir allegedly ordered SPLA Chief of Staff, James Hoth Mai, to arrest “dissident politicians, including Rebecca Nyandeng, the widow of the country’s ruling party founder, late John Garang”.

Presidential guard head, Maj Gen Marial Cinduong Yol, had also ordered deployment of soldiers from one dominant ethnic bloc to the elite force under his command but an unnamed ammunition store manager declined to hand over the store keys, the paper reported, sparking the latest volley of violence.

Two other Ugandans were said to be injured in the cross-fire. State broadcasters in Juba yesterday afternoon run announcements beseeching medical personnel trapped at home to dash and offer help at Juba teaching hospital, overwhelmed with the dying.

A resident, speaking on condition of anonymity owing to sensitivity of the matter, said gunfire rang out of Kiyda barracks for almost four hours yesterday morning, forcing frightened town dwellers to swamp the capital’s Catholic cathedral.

“We are locked up in the house, the shootings resumed around 7am to 10:30am; it’s a tense situation,” the source said. “There are said to be many people killed.”

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan reported that its two bases in Juba had also been inundated with refuge seekers, triggering humanitarian stress.

“We are locked up in the house, the shootings resumed around 7am to 10:30am; it’s a tense situation,” the source said. “There are said to be many people killed.”

This newspaper could not independently confirm reports that two senior members of the executive and up to six military generals were likely among the dead.

Ugandans advised
In Kampala, Foreign Affairs Spokesman Fred Opolot, while quoting Uganda’s ambassador to South Sudan, Maj Gen Robert Rusoke, said Ugandans in Juba had been ordered to “stay indoors and avoid dangerous places altogether”.
Juba airport and South Sudan’s international borders were shut down, families reported stock-out of groceries after shops closed momentarily, and the streets remained deserted except for rumbling battle tanks and ambulance sirens, a witness told the Daily Monitor by telephone.

In the afternoon, presidential guards were said to be sweeping through the capital in a door-to-door search, presumably to handpick accomplices. The five suspected coup plotters were reportedly split into two groups and hiding in locations inaccessible to South Sudan forces due to diplomatic protocol.
Intermittent gunfire echoed in Nyakuron, Bilpham barracks and New Site throughout most of yesterday amid reports Gen Kiir in the afternoon authorised loyal forces to cross Juba Bridge, to take firm control over eastern part of the country.

Fears mounted that the skirmishes could generate into inter-ethnic cleansing after it emerged that the initial fighting at 10pm on Sunday at Bilpham barracks broke out between Nuer and Dinka sections of the SPLA, coursing the tribal wedge between the president, a Dinka and Machar, a Nuer, and their influential political honchos and military commanders.

The US, which played a pivotal role in the secession of South Sudan, issued a statement asking warring groups to cease fire and dialogue while cautioning its citizens in the restless Juba to stay put.

According to high-placed security contacts, the aggressors first targeted the main Bilpham barracks, attacked the SPLM headquarters near Juba University and then took the fight to the presidential palace and ministries.
This is the second time in five months that President Kiir, who succeeded dominant SPLA commander John Garang killed in a helicopter crash in 2005, prevails over soldiers reading for him the riot act. Separately in 2006, SPLA mutinied over pay.

How attempted coup unfolded

Gunshots: Shooting erupted on Sunday night when an unknown person near Nyakuron Cultural Center fired a warning shot at the closure of SPLM National Liberation Council (NLC). Skirmishes in two barracks continued well into yesterday.

Arrests ordered: Gen Kiir had allegedly ordered the arrest of Rebecca Nyandeng, widow of South Sudan’s founding president John Garang, and former vice president Riek Machar in a battle for political supremacy tinged with tribal undertones between the Dinka and Nuer, the country’s largest ethnic groups.

Attacks: First attack was on SPLA headquarters, they then attacked the presidential palace and ministries. By yesterday morning, soldiers at Siyda barracks clashed for almost four hours, sending hundreds fleeing into the Catholic cathedral and two UN bases.
Curfew: In a brief address yesterday afternoon, Gen Kiir declares a curfew to be enforced between 6pm and 6am.
The capital remains under blanket security, Juba airport and international borders closed, most residents are trapped indoors running out on consumables.
Doubts: Other reports suggest the coup could have been stage-managed to justify a crackdown on political opponents.

WHO IS SALVA KIIR

Salva Kiir has led the SPLM since 2005. He became president of South Sudan - then still part of Sudan - and head of the SPLM in 2005, succeeding rebel leader John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash.

Mr Kiir was re-elected as president in multiparty polls in the south in April 2010. On South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, he became president of the new state.

Prior to independence, he was also vice-president of Sudan, under the power-sharing arrangements put in place in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Having fought in the south’s first civil war in the 1960s, Mr Kiir joined the Sudanese army after the 1972 peace agreement. He defected to the rebels again on the resumption of fighting in 1983, later emerging as the SPLM’s military leader.

Mr Kiir has enjoyed a reputation for integrity and being able to reconcile ethnic or political opponents. In mid-2013 President Kiir sacked his entire cabinet, including Vice-President Riek Machar, in an apparent power struggle within the SPLM.

WHO IS RIEK MACHAR

Riek Machar has been a central figure in Sudanese and South Sudanese politics for around three decades
He was a SPLM commander and led a breakaway faction for some years in the 1990s.

After 2004 peace deal, he appointed vice-president of interim government, retaining the post after independence in 2011 until his dismissal in July 2013.
Machar joined the SPLM/SPLA in 1984 and was soon put in charge of the movement’s head office in Addis Ababa by the group’s late chairman, John Garang.

He was given military training and deployed at the rank of major as a zonal commander in 1985 in Western Upper Nile.
Machar quickly rose through the ranks before he disagreed with Garang in 1991 on how the movement was being run.

The issues of contention centred on his call for self-determination, democratisation of the movement and respect for human rights while the late chairman wanted the movement to maintain its objective for a new Sudan; secular democratic and united.

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