South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"

By Awan Achiek
The Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (RTGoNU) on Tuesday dismissed claims from a top Sudanese army general that 65 percent of it’s citizens are fighting alongside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan since outbreak of the war in April 2023.
Amb. Apuk Ayuel Mayen, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation voiced dissatisfaction with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), after Gen. Yasser Al-Atta, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army Forces, appeared in a video footage on January 20, 2025 claiming that 65 percent of the RSF fighters are South Sudanese.
“We are now surprised that Gen. Atta is peddling such falsehoods, which may have motivated some members of the RSF to commit massacres against innocent South Sudanese citizens in Wad Medani and its surroundings,” said Mayen at a press conference in Juba.
Mayen noted that Gen. Al-Atta also sent mixed messages, expressing his trust in President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the leadership of South Sudan while simultaneously accusing South Sudan of doing nothing to prevent South Sudanese individuals from joining RSF.
Al-Atta also accused South Sudan of harboring and aiding RSF, including the facilitation of recruitment and treatment of wounded RSF fighters in South Sudanese hospitals
“It is imperative to clarify that South Sudan’s government did not arrange hospitals to treat RSF soldiers. But we hosted a number of Sudanese soldiers who withdrew from the Mariam city of South Sudan, particularly Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, and from the White Nile State to Renk,” said Mayen.
“We are still accommodating some of these Sudanese soldiers in South Sudan after disarming them and considering them regular civilians, following norms and practices in such situations while awaiting their transportation back to Sudan,” she added.