South Sudan repels attack on garrison town

Government troops have gained full control hours after opposition fighters briefly claimed the town and shared images of seized weapons

South Sudan’s Army repelled an attack by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) on the garrison town of Panyume on Tuesday, according to the local authorities. 

The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) regained full control of the town in Central Equatoria State within hours of the assault, officials said, as quoted by Sudans Post.

“Currently they have been repulsed and there is nobody called I.O. in the town of Panyume now. They have left,” Morobo County Commissioner Charles Data Bullen stated. 

The statement came after SPLA-IO spokesperson Col. Lam Paul Gabriel said the two-hour operation resulted in what the group described as full control of the town. He claimed that fighters captured military hardware during the clashes.

The opposition shared images on social media that it said show fighters in front of the Panyume Payam headquarters with seized weapons and vehicles. However, local officials disputed the account.

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Bullen added that Panyume’s garrison was a military zone devoid of civilians during the clash and that there was no confirmed displacement from the town itself.

Panyume is a small but strategically located garrison town around 138 km from the nation’s capital, Juba, and near the borders with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

According to Sudans Post, the clash follows renewed orders from senior SPLA-IO commanders for forces to advance toward Juba.

The fighting is part of wider tensions between government forces and opposition groups that have flared periodically since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The country has remained unstable since the end of a five-year civil war that erupted in 2013 following a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar. 

READ MORE: Dozens killed in African state’s clashes with opposition

In September, fighting between government forces and opposition fighters in South Sudan left at least 48 people dead and more than 150 injured. Clashes also led to the deaths of several government soldiers after a UN helicopter came under fire last year.