Authorities in Guit County of Unity State have accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) of detaining a barge belonging to the Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC) for the past two weeks.
Greater Pioneer Operating Company is an oil consortium owned by China’s National Petroleum Corporation, India’s ONGC Videsh and Nilepet.
The incident reputedly occurred shortly after violence in Nasir, which prompted the government to arrest senior SPLM/A-IO leaders, including Dr. Riek Machar.
Guit County Commissioner Simon Diu confirmed to Radio Tamazuj on Monday evening that the barge’s pilot and crew members were also detained.
“I communicated several times with the SPLM-IO leadership in Unity State to release the vessel and the four crew members,” Diu said.
He added that the barge was transporting four containers of machinery to construct the port of Guit.
Diu said the SPLA-IO commander had agreed to release the barge and crew.
However, SPLA-IO Sector Two spokesperson Maj. Yai Pazale told this publication that he was unaware of the barge’s detention.
“I am not aware of any vessel being detained in Wichmoun at the riverside in Guit County,” Pazale said.
Rising tensions between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar culminated in the latter’s house arrest in Juba last month. Machar’s party said the move violated power-sharing arrangements that had ended years of fighting.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 agreement ended a five-year conflict between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar, which killed nearly 400,000 people.