Commanders in South Sudan’s army (SPLA) have ordered soldiers to loot food and relief supplies from civilians in Unity State with the dual purpose of supplying their own army on the cheap besides also driving starving civilians into government-held enclaves, according to government sources.
A high level source in the ministry of defense said the underlying reasons for forcing civilians to the government controlled areas is to tell the outside world that the government is capable of providing protection to populations in areas under its control.
Sources at the ministry of foreign affairs, the Unity state government, and in the SPLA’s headquarters corroborated the ministry of defense source’s statement.
The ministry of defense source said a second reason is that such actions would deprive the rebels access to relief which they may get indirectly through family members like wives who are eligible to receive food aid. If civilians cross into government controlled areas, the rebels will eventually lose access to aid and starve, the source said.
Radio Tamazuj has earlier reported that the SPLA is deliberately blocking deliveries of food aid into rebel areas on orders from Chief of General Staff Paul Malong in order to starve civilians. Radio Tamazuj has also reported that government troops attacked Dablual, a village in Mayendit county of Unity state after WFP delivered food to 35,000 civilians there.
The United Nations and humanitarians have called on the SPLA to lift its blockade on relief supplies.
But soldiers say they are stealing food from starving civilians because they themselves don’t have enough to eat. Soldiers and commanders say the SPLA is not adequately supplying food to foot soldiers in remote parts of the Greater Upper Nile region, instead telling the soldiers to “survive” using whatever tactics they can find.
A soldier within Division 4 in Unity state said: “At some points we had to attack some places suspected to have relief food so that we could use it when we have captured the place.”
He complained that military food procurements do not reach the troops on the front lines. “The food you hear of does not come to us. It ends up in Juba. Whatever little which comes goes to the big people and when they are under pressure, the scraps they give finishes within two to three days and then we go hungry again,” he said.
That soldier complained he has not receive military supplies, specifically food rations, for more than two months, forcing them to engage in “survival tactics” attacking food distributions.
An SPLA officer said it has been more than a month since the SPLA supplied its forces in Unity and Upper Nile state due to the SPLA’s limited air capabilities and inability to pay the high cost of private flight charters into conflict zones.
Another officer in the SPLA’s procurement and logistics department said they do not usually send food to soldiers because soldiers are meant to use their salaries to purchase food from markets. That source said market disruptions caused by the war in Greater Upper Nile have required the SPLA to supply food to the soldiers.
Sources suggested that the tactic of stealing relief food comes on orders, not only out of desperate soldiers’ necessity. At a military parade during Martyrs’ Day commerations last week, Major General Asief Gatluak, the SPLA’s fourth division commander in Unity State, told assembled forces “a soldier is a survivor.”
“You are soldiers and you must have courage, resilience, and willingness to adapt to any situation. You know how we survived during the war with Sudan. We had no salaries but we survived. Soldiers should be flexible and adaptable to any situation,” the general said.
“A real soldier is a survivor. No soldier can starve to death, no, this is a false. It cannot happen. We used to make our minds during the war and we survived,” he said.
Martyrs’ Day marks the anniversary of the death of SPLA founder John Garang who launched a rebellion in southern Sudan in the early 1980s. Various SPLA factions stole relief food meant for civilians during that war.
Photo: General Salva Kiir with two of his top commanders General Marial Chanuang and General Paul Malong