About 200 soldiers defected from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) in Jonglei a week ago, a general at the front told Radio Tamazuj, saying the troops crossed into rebel-held territory in Ayod.

The SPLA general’s remarks not only confirm that a second defection took place last week, unreported until now, but they also point to links between that defection and the more recent defections at Mapel and Wau.

According to the field commander, the defection in Jonglei took place just days before the Mapel defection and also involved troops deployed from that base.

Radio Tamazuj learnt from a source in Wau on Sunday that some of the Nuer troops who defected there over the weekend had recently returned from the Jonglei front. They reportedly arrived back at the Mapel base after a field commander in Jonglei declined to accept them in his command and had them sent away from the front.

The military source in Jonglei confirmed that Nuer soldiers were sent away from the Jonglei front, but explained that some were recalled again from Mapel and then joined an offensive mission into Ayod.

Asked whether some Nuer SPLA troops were sent away from the Jonglei front, the general confirmed, explaining, “Yes, they were – about 200 plus were returned back to Mapel, but they were also (later) returned back to the operation zone.”

It was this group under the command of a lieutenant colonel that broke ranks and crossed into enemy territory, he claimed.

“They came back with their commander. They came back here. But when they arrived here they all deserted. When they arrived in Jonglei, and when we were approaching Ayod they deserted in a place called Pajut in Duk Padiet,” added the senior commander in an interview by satellite phone.

He said he was not sure whether they joined the rebellion or merely deserted, but it was confirmed they had reached to rebel-held territory.

‘We need you for a political reason’

This incident suggests that generals within the SPLA command in Jonglei were divided over whether to make use of Nuer troops in their ranks, with some generals seeing them as an internal threat, while others saw them as strategically essential in order to win over civilians in Nuer-inhabited areas that they aimed to occupy.

The general explained that another commander, and not he, originally sent the Nuer troops back to their base after they arrived initially in the Jonglei state capital Bor. But he added that he wished to have them at the front in order to take part in an offensive operation to capture Ayod, and therefore ordered them to return again.

“When they arrived to Bor they were collected and sent back to Mapel. When they arrived Mapel, then I also ordered them that we need them back, because we are coming to the Nuer area, and the element of Nuer sons is an important factor in the operations in Jonglei,” he said.

“So they came. Now when they came we had a meeting which was attended by the governor – himself a Nuer – and some other senior Nuer ministers of the state also attended to talk to them.”

He continued, “And then we left towards Ayod. Before we arrived Ayod, in a place called Duk Padiet, we grouped them and we gave them their command, and we informed them that when we reach Ayod we need you for a political reason. We need to use you so that you have communication with the civilians in Nuer areas.”

“Unfortunately, before we left that night [21 April], they all deserted, and reported themselves to the rebels in a place called Pajut,” he said.

Ayod offensive

In spite of the defection, the SPLA managed to capture Ayod later in the week, according to government officials.

The army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told Sudan Tribune on Friday that the army gained control of Ayod for the first time since start of the war in December.

Commissioner Dau Akoi, the head of the county government in neighboring Duk County, confirmed the same to Radio Tamazuj earlier.

But the commissioner noted also that rebels launched attacks into Duk Payuel and Poktap – government-controlled areas that were by that time apparently in the rear of the army, which had moved on to Ayod.

Fresh fighting was reported in the Ayod area on Monday morning, with SPLA claiming to have repulsed counterattacks on their positions.

File photo: SPLA soldiers in Jonglei