{UAH} Mrs Garang: Kiir Trained 15,000 Soldiers to Wage Current War

Former presidential advisor and widow to the late John Garang, Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, has revealed that President Salva Kiir secretly trained soldiers from his tribe to mastermind the current war in South Sudan.

Addressing reports on Friday, Rebecca disclosed that President Kiir had already planned ahead for the war and that is why, after a clash with Riek Machar in a meeting, he ordered the disarming of Nuer soldiers within his presidential guards. "Kiir's refusal to allow internal reform in the country's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) was the source of the conflict," she explained. "All along, Kiir had been illegally training a private army of 15,000 men from his tribe in preparation to counter any resistance in case conflicts broke out. It is this army that is now fighting the current war," Rebecca pursued. "Kiir, the chairperson of SPLM and his group, got upset when the former vice-president and party deputy chairman, Riek Machar, and the rest of us declined to attend a second day of the National Liberation Council (NLC) meeting." She notes that Kiir used their absence to forge a non-existent coup hence the decision to arrest the 10 cabinet ministers, put her under house arrest and order the capture of Riek Machar. "But in actual sense, there was no coup." What transpired on December 15, 2013 "It all started at the headquarters. The commander of the presidential guards sought advice from the chief of the general staff, Gen Hoth Mai, and was told to leave the Nuer soldiers until the next morning. But the officer did not listen to his orders and proceeded to try and disarm the Nuer soldiers. This was the time when this thing erupted and war begun in the headquarters of the president," Rebecca was quoted as saying. Then Kiir's private army headed to Machar's house to "kill him" but fortunately, some Nuer soldiers had already alerted him to escape as fast as he could. When the private army arrived at Machar's house, they set out shooting anything that moved, killing 34 guards and destroying property. "His (Machar) house was destroyed by the Tiger division-Kiir's special army." Machar's guards were disarmed on orders of the Chief of Staff as a way of saving their lives but they were all killed anyway. Tiger troops are also said to have killed many officials and administrators in the capital Juba ever since the outbreak of the conflict.   Other sources: Sudan Tribune, London Post 

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