Fighting broke out inside a military base in the capital of South Sudan on Wednesday morning. A general of the presidential guard is reported to have led a gun battle against other army soldiers and high-ranked officers at the base, after soldiers in his custody were denied payment this morning.
The clashes raged for about two hours in the morning and resumed in the early afternoon again at Giyada barracks leaving dozens dead. Explosions were also heard this afternoon purportedly coming from an ammunition store, and smoke was seen from an army base.
Amid continuing confusion in the national capital, with shops closing and workers heading home, the army general headquarters sought to reassure the population that incident was only “very limited fighting that erupted among some few commandos.”
Soldiers who were present at Giyada at the time the shooting started, however, explained that the incident started when a top commander sought to secure payment for soldiers who had been living at UNMISS bases in Juba.
Brig-Gen. Gatwich Gai reportedly went to the UN base yesterday evening and took three vehicles full of soldiers who had been living there to Giyada in order to be paid in the morning. Gatwich was a commander of commando soldiers in the presidential guard, the Tiger Division.
The general is said to have insisted that the soldiers he brought to Giyada be paid first this morning, but was told by an army payment committee that the soldiers would not be given salaries because they were not on the payment list.
Brig-Gen. Malak Ayuen Ajok, Director of SPLA Public Relations, stated, “Soldiers actually came to inquire about when they are going to receive their salaries. And they were told ‘Wait, there is a system set up for every unit to receive.’ I think during the discussion there was a misunderstanding among the soldiers themselves and this led to limited shooting among themselves.”
Hundreds of soldiers, many of them unarmed, were reportedly queued waiting for their payments when the fighting broke out at Giyada. Brig-Gen. Gatwich is alleged to have engaged in a dispute with the payment committee.
In the fighting that ensued, seven of his bodyguards were killed and he was later captured in Khor William, near to Giyada, according to soldiers. Many of the soldiers brought from UNMISS may also be dead. They had been living under the protection of the UN since mid-December, when fighting first began within the army.
Separately, another security source confirmed the role of General Gatwich in the events, saying he shot at salary officials and later was arrested in Khor William.
According to the deputy army spokesman, the fighting was however limited to only a “very small unit of commandos staying here in the grounds of the SPLA forces headquarters,’ which is located south of Juba, and that is where the headquarters of ground forces are located including the commandos, or we call it special force.”
At the time of speaking, the spokesman would confirm only five dead and “two or three” injured. Witnesses sighted ambulances in parts of the city today also, as well as heavy security presence throughout Juba.
File photo: A group of South Sudanese soldiers gather near a truck as they patrol the streets of Juba (AFP)
This article has been modified from its original version to reflect a correction to the text.