Paul Malong Awan

Talks in Rome designed to bring R-ARCSS holdouts – such as Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka and former Salva-ally and strongman General Paul Malong Awan – back inside the fold keep collapsing...

Jok was appointed as chief of general staff in May 2018 after the sudden death of his predecessor Gen James Ajongo Mawut who had himself been in post for less than a year following the dismissal of Gen Paul Malong Awan in May 2017...

Attempts to bring hold-out forces on board by the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Catholic community resulted in a truce with the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance coalition of nine groups including those led by powerful former army chief Paul Malong Awan former deputy chief of staff and Equatorian strongman Thomas Cirillo Swaka and former secretary-general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Pa'gan Amum Okiech...

This ignores the potential for further trouble that former Juba Chief of Staff Gen Paul Malong Awan could unleash with his South Sudan United Front another group unhappy with the peace deal which he has established in Salva's Dinka heartland in the north of the country (AC Vol 59 No 10 Splits and special pleas)...

Worryingly for Salva Kiir Mayardit ex-army-chief-turned-rebel 'King' Paul Malong Awan remains completely outside the process representing a big threat from his home area the western Dinka heartland of northern Bahr el Ghazal (AC Vol 59 No 10 Splits and special pleas)...

Not in the processThe most significant absentee from the dialogue is General Paul Malong Awan who was Salva's main strongman until being sacked in April 2017...

In April the unity of President Salva Kiir Mayardit's Dinka-dominated alliance fractured further when his former army chief Paul Malong Awan announced the formation of yet another opposition movement the South Sudan United Front...

Last year's firing of Chief of Staff Paul Malong Awan a strongman who had many allies in the government has left Salva fearing internal competition even from long-time allies (AC Vol 58 No 11 The fall of 'King Paul')...

Similarly the removal of army chief Paul Malong Awan has led to a splintering of formerly staunch regime supporters in his Dinka heartland of Northern Bahr el Ghazal with key figures now joining the armed opposition (AC Vol 58 No 11 The fall of 'King Paul')...

There was concern over an impending coup by the newly ousted Chief of Staff General Paul Malong Awan...