Paul Malong Awan, former South Sudan’s army chief of staff has formed a resistance movement declaring it as a means through which he would reclaim the country by establishing strong institutions that would outlive men.
Malong, according to the document declaring his intention and released to the public on Monday, said it was not enough to continue to use the role of the liberation to tear apart the country.
The former army chief stated that the objective of his movement is to arrest the carnage in the country and steer the nation towards democracy and development as the basis of founding a nation.
“Our movement is a just an urgent call to our compatriots and a struggle to first arrest the carnage that has befell our country and secondly to steer us towards democracy and development, which are the cornerstones of nationhood, an African nationhood of democracy, development, equal citizenry, justice, and freedom,” the statement reads in part.
He named his movement South Sudan United Front and accused President Salva Kiir of running a country where total impunity is the order, saying his movement strives to reverse the practice.
“Our movement seeks to reverse this. We must build our nationhood around strong institutions and not strongmen. Strong institutions will outlive all of us and guarantee the prosperity of our nation. This is what we yearn for in our country,” he explained.
Malong called for a constitutional conference through which people would discuss and agree how they would want to govern themselves and come out with a roadmap defining and separating powers.
“It is with this in mind that we announce our intention to join the South Sudan Opposition Alliance. And we call upon all the political parties and forces, the intellectuals and the civil society at large to do so. We further state our intention to participate in the Revitalisation Forum scheduled to commence on the 26th of April 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We will equally be appending our signature to the addendum to the cessation of hostilities already signed by the other parties,” the statement reads.
Attached is the official statement of reference.