Rebels pledge ‘guerrilla war’ if peace talks fail
AKOBO, South Sudan— South Sudan’s opposition is threatening to resort to “guerrilla warfare” if peace talks in Ethiopia fail in the coming days as government forces advance on remaining rebel strongholds in the fifth year of civil war.
“We will keep fighting from the bush by using insurgencies and tactical strategies,” said James Otong, general deputy commander for the armed opposition, during a visit to the rebel-held town of Akobo, near the Ethiopian border.
Untold tens of thousands of people have been killed since the world’s youngest nation plunged into civil war in late 2013. The United Nations on Thursday warned that the number of South Sudanese refugees could exceed 3 million by the end of the year — Africa’s largest refugee crisis since Rwanda’s genocide in 1994.
Although South Sudan highlevel peace talks are set to resume on Monday, opposition forces accuse the government of being more interested in “waging war” than in ending the conflict. The government says it acts only in self-defense.
The international community is openly frustrated with both sides as a cease-fire that took effect Dec. 24 was violated within hours. The United States is pressing the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, saying its leaders are “betraying” the country.
In Akobo, one of the last opposition strongholds, a reporter spoke with several displaced families who said they fled recent attacks by government forces.
“They’re probably dead,” Nyakum Well said of her missing children, choking back tears as she sat in her small teashop under a tree. “If (President) Salva Kiir’s government captures any human being, they kill them.”
Five days earlier, the 27-yearold was separated from her two young children when government troops attacked her town of Pieri, killing civilians and burning houses, she said.
Aid workers in Akobo estimate that 100 people have been flowing in daily since the middle of January. Local authorities are concerned the town will be targeted next.
Conflict experts said Akobo is considered the most “strategic and symbolic” of the remaining rebel-held areas and that the government is attempting to walk a “diplomatic tightrope” between advancing militarily and appeasing the international community.
South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013 between supporters of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and former Vice President Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer.