The SPLA-IO Kit-Gwang Spokesperson, Gen Paul Achut Nyibek, has denied claims of illness of the faction leader, Gen Johnson Olony.
Nyibek told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that the speculations were baseless.
“It is not true that Gen Olony is sick. Gen Olony was actually attending a social event in Juba with us when those rumors started circulating over the weekend,” he said.
Nyibek said Olony, who is also the commander of the Agwelek forces in Upper Nile State, was busy in Juba with the implementation of the Khartoum peace agreement.
“What has been circulating on social media that Gen. Olony is critically sick and has been blocked by the authorities in Juba from travelling abroad for medical treatment are lies. It is the work of the enemies of peace,” he said.
Nyibek said Gen. Olony was attending to his responsibilities daily and that plans were underway for him to conduct a media interview.
Olony, who has been in Juba since May 2023 after his return from the bush, signed a peace agreement with the government in January 2022.
When asked about the implementation of the deal with President Salva Kiir, Nyibek said: “The security arrangements and integration of our forces into the army will start after the rainy season because it is not easy now to move in Upper Nile.”
The SPLA-IO Kit-Gwang faction official noted that the political process of the 2022 peace agreement was underway, saying they met recently and the SPLM Secretary-General directed to start the integration of their officials into the ruling party.
Olony initially defected from the government to protect the land of the Chollo (Shilluk) people in Upper Nile State. He, however, eventually joined Dr Riek Machar’s SPLM/A-IO, and was nominated a Governor of Upper Nile State by Dr Machar under the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement.
However, President Kiir rejected his nomination on account of Olony being a “warmonger”.
In August 2021, Gen Simon Gatwech Dual issued a communiqué following a meeting of SPLA-IO commanders in Kit-Gwang in Magenis, a northern-most town bordering Sudan, declaring that they had ousted Dr Machar as the leader of the SPLM/A-IO. In what has since come to be known as the Kit-Gwang Declaration, Gatwech declared himself the new leader and appointed Olony as his number two.
In January 2022, the SPLA-IO Kit-Gwang faction signed a peace agreement in Khartoum with President Kiir’s government. The Agwelek forces led by Olony also signed a separate agreement with the government at the same time. The Kit-Gwang faction, however, became disillusioned months after the peace deal and blamed the government for not implementing it.
Gatwech and Olony later fell out, the former fired the latter, and their forces clashed several times. Olony would later say that he was for peace and willing to go to Juba.
His arrival in Juba in May 2023 was the result of months of protracted negotiations with loyalists of President Kiir.