David Yau Yau
South Sudan rebel leader David Yau Yau signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in Juba on 31 January 2014, which officials hoped will signal the end of one of the longest-running insurgencies in the country. The peace pact was signed months after Yau Yau engaged in negotiations with leaders of his Murle ethnic group, and then with church leaders appointed by President Salva Kiir. The two sides agreed to cease fighting immediately, and will continue to hold talks to hammer out other details of the deal.
Yau Yau's rebel group called for Jonglei, the largest state in South Sudan, where Yau Yau was based, to be split into two states to improve the chances of success for the peace deal. “It must be divided because the population of Jonglei State is unable to live in harmony," Joseph Lilimoi, a spokesman for Yau Yau's rebel group said. "So it will be good if we divided them and the four tribes – Murle, Anyuak, Kachipo and Jie, which have been labeled as minorities within Jonglei state -- would have their own state,” he said.
David Yau Yau first took up arms against Juba after he failed to win a parliamentary seat in the 2010 general elections, which he said were rigged. In 2011 he accepted Kiir's offer of amnesty and returned to Juba where he was promoted to the rank of general in the SPLA. But in 2012, he resumed his rebellion against Juba. Juba has accused Khartoum of backing Yau Yau's rebellion -- accusations that Sudan has repeatedly denied.
In a major flareup of violence in January 2012, some 8,000 Lou Nuer and others descended on Murle villages, looting cattle, attacking women and children, massacring and burning. Hundreds, or even thousands died, and hundreds more in northern Jonglei in a spate of smaller revenge attacks. But the blood debt had not been paid, and a disarmament campaign marred by abuses by government security forces pushed many of the Murle into the arms of rebel leader David Yau Yau. Deadly attacks by Yau Yau prompted men in Lou Nuer villages to come south and release their grief through centuries-old violence made increasingly deadly by modern weaponry, fighting forces under the control of Yau Yau.
In April 2012 Yau Yau defected again to Khartoum, and in August 2012 he re-established his militia in Pibor County. Insecurity in Pibor and surrounding counties increased significantly. The armed group loyal to David Yau Yau, a Murle, took up positions in Pibor County in late August 2012. Frequent, although small-scale, clashes between the group and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army were reported throughout November and December 2012. On 19 November, about 100 members of this armed group established three rudimentary defensive positions next to the UNMISS base in Likuangole. The same day, Sudan People’s Liberation Army in th e area successfully dislodged this group in an attack involving over 200 soldiers.
Fighting between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the armed group affiliated with David Yau Yau escalated in Jonglei State. In Pibor County, on 17 March 2013, a Sudan People’s Liberation Army convoy travelling from Pibor to Likuangole was ambushed by armed elements, reportedly resulting in the death of one Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldier and seven wounded. On 21 March, an ambush on convoys of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the South Sudan National Police Service, approximately 10 kilometers northeast of Gumuruk, resulted in the death of 14 Sudan People’s Liberation Army soldiers. On 25 and 26 March, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, in another clash with the Yau Yau group near Kalbat and in Akelo, suffered over 100 casualties. There is little information on other casualties, including among civilians. 25. On 7 April, the Yau Yau group, referring to itself as the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army, issued the Jebel Boma declaration and its manifesto.
The declaration, inter alia, criticized the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for having focused on the ethnic background of different groups, while the manifesto highlighted that the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army aimed to free all marginalized communities in South Sudan.
Several clashes were also reported in Pochalla County, including two attacks on two locations on 16 and 21 April by armed elements affiliated with Yau Yau. On 28 April, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army was again attacked by armed elements in the Marua Hills. On 6 May, the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army issued a statement declaring that its forces had taken Boma. It also reiterated the group’s determination to capture Pibor and Kapoeta (Eastern Equatoria State), while warning civilians to leave the area. On 13 May, the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army issued another statement claiming that Pibor town was on the verge of falling under its control, adding that two battalions had been sent to attack Bor. On 20 May, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army confirmed the recapture of Boma town from the Yau Yau armed group, indicating that at least 20 armed elements and four of its sold iers had been killed in the battle.
Subsequently, there were reports that significant numbers of the Yau Yau armed group had been seen further north in Akobo County and in Upper Nile State, and were supposedly moving towards oil-producing areas. 27. On 25 April, through a republican order, the Government renewed its amnesty offer to six armed group leaders and their forces, including the Yau Yau group. The offer was discussed with the South Sudan Liberation Army, the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army, and the South Sudan Defence Forces, but had been spurned by the Yau Yau group, as was the case with earlier efforts to engage the latter prior to the onset of the rainy season.
In November 2013 South Sudanese President Salva Kiir issued a series of presidential decrees calling for former rebel fighters who have accepted the government's amnesty offer to be integrated into the army. The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has credited Kiir’s amnesty offers with decreasing the number of insurgencies in the country, noting that five out of 18 rebel groups accepted Kiir's offer in 2012, and eight more were considering it. The last major holdout was rebel leader David Yau Yau.
The government responded to insecurity in Jonglei in several ways. It initially sought to bring insurgent groups back into the SPLA, including by offering an amnesty to Yau Yau and his followers, but the SPLA rank and file were less willing than their superiors to accommodate militia groups such as Yau Yau’s. A key concern is the rank that the incoming insurgents are offered. It has been claimed that Yau Yau defected again to Khartoum because he was not given the rank of Major-General by South Sudan. However, he had no military background and granting him that rank would have been highly unpopular among the rank and file of the SPLA.
South Sudan vowed February 14, 2013 to defeat "by the end of the dry season" an armed rebel group led by David Yau Yau, which is suspected of killing more than 100 cattle keepers in Jonglei. The dry season usually runs until May. Atem also ruled out holding talks with Yau Yau, calling him a bandit and a traitor who has been excluded from an amnesty offered by President Salva Kiir to armed groups fighting the government in after South Sudan became independent in 2011.
In Jonglei State, fighting in Pibor County between SPLA and the David Yau Yau armed group subsided at the end of June 2013, while increased armed group activity was reported in Pochalla County, leading to the deployment of additional SPLA troops there. Since early July 2013, SPLA maintained defensive positions and ceased operations against the group. On 30 July, during his Martyrs’ Day speech, President Kiir reiterated his offer of amnesty to armed groups. Though David Yau Yau rejected the offer, he agreed to engage in a peace process.
Independent Swiss-based research group the Small Arms Survey said in August 2013 that weapons seized from David Yau Yau's revel group in Jonglei state have been tampered with, in a bid to conceal where they came from. Jonah Leff, a researcher with the Small Arms Survey, said the weapons seized were the same as those previously documented, except for the fact that the serial numbers were gone. Researchers with the Small Arms Survey said they had evidence Khartoum supplied weapons to Yau Yau’s fighters.
In Juba, the government's military spokesman Philip Aguer said 07 January 2014 that David Yau Yau, who has in the past led a rebellion against South Sudan's army in the vast Jonglei state had joined the government troops. Yau Yau was not immediately available to comment.
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