The South Sudanese government has appointed a county executive for Leer, a town in southern Unity State seized by the government from opposition forces loyal to Riek Machar and the former governor Taban Deng.
Leer, the hometown of opposition leader Riek Machar, was allegedly captured last week by a joint force of the South Sudanese army SPLA and the allied Darfur rebel movement JEM, which fought to help recapture the state capital Bentiu last month.
Over the weekend the new commissioner Stephen Taker Riek was appointed to take over the civil government of the region. He had served as commissioner of Leer previously, on appointment by the ex-governor Taban Deng, who is now a leading figure in the opposition, but was relieved about a year ago.
Commissioner Taker, speaking with Eye Radio in Juba on Tuesday, denied claims that government forces destroyed Leer town in an offensive on Saturday. He said Leer town is now calm.
“The situation in Leer County is normal, it is quiet… there is no problem. People are working in their places and the government has resumed its work. There is no fighting, there is no looting and there is no problem at all happening in Leer,” said the local official.
John Malok, state security advisor, likewise told Radio Tamazuj in Bentiu, “There aren’t any developments in Leer. That’s all propaganda of Riek Machar, there weren’t any events in Leer up to now.”
Destruction denied
The security official contended that “the army was already in Leer before the agreement, and it has stayed in Leer until now, and there’s no events in Leer, and are forces are staying where they are.”
“Our forces entered Leer before the agreement,” he emphasized.
Malok was speaking after the Washington-based Satellite Sentinel Project claimed that almost 1,100 houses were brunt in Leer, according to satellite images taken on Sunday.
The Washington-based group stated in a press release, “Imagery of Leer town in Unity state, which journalists and aid workers have been unable to visit since the latest bout of violence, shows huts engulfed in flames.” The images have been cited as evidence of a ceasefire violation.
In an interview, Malok also denied reports of clashes on Sunday in Nhialdiu area, saying the government was controlling that area since a long time ago.
Asked to comment on the statement of MSF that their staff had been forced to flee from the hospital in Leer, the security official said, “That’s all propaganda of Taban’s people, and Riek Machar, because Leer area was not destroyed. There was nothing destroyed in Leer. The houses are all there.”
John Malok also denied the Ugandan army was involved in the recent fighting in Unity State, as claimed by an opposition military spokesman.
“The Ugandan army! We would bring them from where? From Uganda all the way to Unity State – all the journalists, all the world would see. We would take the Ugandan army from where?” he said.
He made similar remarks on the alleged role of the Justice and Equality Movement, the north Sudanese rebel force known for fighting in highly mobile convoys of heavily armed mounted pick-up trucks.
Kidnapped traders found
Commissioner Stephen Taker, for his part, also disclosed that government forces had located a large group of Sudanese traders who had been kidnapped by opposition fighters.
“They are 213 traders. Those who are working in the market, they are traders from Sudan. The rebels had captured them and they took them away. They were in the bush for fourteen days,” he told Eye Radio.
“They took them to a place called Gador payam. The SPLA went there and rescued them. There were no clashes because the rebels left when they heard the SPLA was coming. The traders have been brought and they are now in Leer town,” he explained.
Photo: An image of Leer released by the Satellite Sentinel Project