Gen. Gatwech withdraws from Port Sudan peace agreement, declares war on Juba

PORT SUDAN — The Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/A-IO Kit-Gwang faction, Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, has formally withdrawn from the Port Sudan Peace Agreement and declared open hostilities against the government in Juba, accusing President Salva Kiir Mayardit of sabotaging peace efforts and returning the country to war.

In a strongly worded letter dated February 2, 2026, addressed to Sudan’s Sovereign Council president Abdel Fatah Al Burhan through Sudan’s intelligence chief in Port Sudan, Gatwech said his movement was “signalling SPLM-IO Kit Gwang’s withdrawal from the agreement” after what he described as a year of “Juba non-commitment and follow-up.”

The general accused the government of failing to operationalise the deal signed in Port Sudan in February 2025 and instead launching attacks on his forces.

“There have been no tangible results in resolving the outstanding issues in the agreement, nor has Juba officially met with our team,” Gatwech wrote. “Instead, Juba fired the main focal person on the agreement and started a unilateral campaign, attacking and bombing our area of cantonment.”

He further alleged “pervasive indiscriminate bombing of Kit-Gwang forces and civilians all over South Sudan,” saying these actions had extinguished “the hope for sustainable peace, security, and prosperity.”

Gatwech said the government had effectively collapsed both the Port Sudan deal and the broader revitalised peace process by ignoring security arrangements and detaining his advance team. “The unilateral and intentional unravelling of the agreement… [is] plunging the country back into war,” he stated.

In one of the most direct threats yet from the Kit-Gwang faction, the rebel leader declared Juba “an enemy of the people, warranting immediate change,” accusing the ruling SPLM of holding citizens “hostage” and monopolising state resources and the military.

He also cited renewed military coordination with other opposition groups, saying Kit-Gwang forces joined the Joint Opposition Movements (JOM) and recently “captured Pajut in Jonglei… to defend civilians from Juba’s senseless war.”

While thanking Sudan for acting as a guarantor, Gatwech warned that signatories share responsibility if South Sudan “slides back into civil war,” though he placed primary blame on Kiir.

“Our vision is a peaceful South Sudan,” he concluded, “but the status quo is perpetuated by those who continue to manipulate and derail the implementation of the peace agreements.”

The withdrawal raises fears of escalating clashes in Upper Nile and Jonglei, regions that have seen repeated confrontations between government and opposition forces, threatening to unravel fragile stability ahead of the country’s already delayed transition.