FILE: General Simon Gatwech Dual. Credit| Getty images

The embattled SPLA-IO Chief of Staff says he won’t be coming to Juba to take up his new post as Presidential Advisor due to the absence of a unified force.

General Simon Gatwech Dual turned down his appointment as Peace Advisor to the Presidency.

Early this week, President Salva Kiir appointed him as an advisor on the SPLM-IO ticket.

Kiir also appointed Dr. Costello Garang Ring Lual as an advisor on the ticket of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance.

However, General Gatwech described his appointment as an attempt to lure him to come to Juba.

He argues that such positions do not exist in the revitalized peace deal.

General Gatwech spoke to Eye Radio on Friday, June 25, 2021.

“This appointment is a very good one, but…they want me to come to Juba, to do what when the unified forces composed of 83,000 soldiers and police have not been graduated? If the forces are graduated, I will come to Juba, but not yet.”

LISTEN to the interview with Eye Radio’s Alhadi Hawari:

“I will still be an SPLA-IO and I will follow the revitalized peace agreement as signed. But Dr Riek is the one not following the peace implementation because I’m the one in charge of the army and these forces will die in my hands.”

“All of us need peace, I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t want peace. Everyone wants peace.”

Since the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in 2018, General Gatwech has been stationed in the Magenis area along the common border of Sudan and South Sudan.

Before his new appointment, Gatwech was in charge of all sectors, divisions, brigades, and battalions of the SPLA-IO.

He recently complained to the regional guarantors that the peace agreement was fragile.

He claims his boss, Dr. Riek Machar, was a prisoner in Juba.

It is still not clear whether Dr. Riek Machar as the leader of the SPLM/SPLA-IO officially relieved General Simon Gatwech from the position of Chief of Staff following his appointment as Presidential Advisor.