SPLA-IO says it has captured Panyume, government rejects claim

JUBA — South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) claimed on Tuesday that its forces had overrun Panyume, a small but strategic garrison town in Central Equatoria State, following an intense dawn assault, a claim rejected by local authorities who insisted government troops had repelled the attack.

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, SPLA-IO spokesperson Col. Lam Paul Gabriel said opposition forces launched a coordinated offensive at daybreak against a major government position in Morobo County.

He characterized the assault as the opening phase of a wider campaign following directives from the movement’s high command to “take the fight to Juba.”

He stated that the operation involved the National Mobile Force and Division 2B, resulting in the town falling under full opposition control.

“Following the directives from the SPLA-IO high command on taking the fight to Juba, the National Mobile force together with Div. 2B launched a sustained offensive against the major Joint operation base of the SSPDF in Morobo county (Panyume) at around 0500 hours,” Lam said. “The battle lasted for two hours with the SPLM-IG forces losing control of the town at 0730 hours.”

Lam reported that SPLA-IO forces seized a significant cache of military hardware during the operation, including armoured personnel carriers, pickup trucks, mortar systems, and heavy machine guns.

Images circulating on social media, which Sudans Post geolocated, appeared to support the opposition’s account. The footage showed opposition fighters gathering in front of the Panyume Payam headquarters building, posing with captured weapons and armoured vehicles which the group presented as definitive evidence of its hold on the town.

“The SPLA-IO command congratulates all own forces for the successful operations against the SPLM-IG regime in the areas already under its control,” Lam said, adding: “The struggle continues.”

The South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) did not issue an immediate formal response from military headquarters in Juba. However, local authorities in Morobo County disputed the opposition’s narrative, acknowledging a breach of the town’s perimeter but insisting government forces had regained control after a brief incursion.

Morobo County Commissioner Charles Data Bullen confirmed that SPLA-IO fighters managed to enter parts of Panyume during the early stages of the fighting but stated they were subsequently pushed back and were no longer present in the town.

“In the morning, the [SPLA) I.O. managed to take part of the Panyume because the SSPDF. did not go out,” Bullen told Sudans Post. “Those who are in the trenches remained in their trenches, so part of it was taken by the I.O., but currently they have been repulsed and there is nobody called I.O. in the town of Panyume now. They have left.”

Bullen stated that Panyume remains under full SSPDF control and noted that the garrison was devoid of civilians at the time of the clash.

“Since the capture of Panyume by SSPDF, it remains only a military people are in that place. There are no civilians. The civilians are six miles away from the garrison or the center,” he said, adding that there had been no confirmed civilian displacement from the town itself.

He noted that SPLA-IO fighters remained active in the surrounding bush, describing the presence of four opposition bases in the vicinity and suggesting the attackers were utilizing guerrilla tactics.

“The I.O. have about four bases in Panyume bushes,” he said. “So the location exactly we may not know, but they are around the bushes of Panyume… Of course, a gorilla is like this.”

Panyume serves as the administrative headquarters of Panyume Payam in Morobo County, Central Equatoria State.

Located approximately 45 kilometres southeast of Yei and roughly 21 kilometres northeast of Morobo town, it sits along a sensitive corridor linking the southwestern borderlands to the national capital, Juba.

The fighting in Panyume erupted just a day after senior SPLA-IO commanders publicly ordered their forces to advance toward Juba, urging civilians to vacate potential military targets in the capital.

While opposition figures characterized the clashes as the opening of a broader military campaign to topple the government, officials in Juba have warned against what they described as destabilizing rhetoric.

The town has been a flashpoint before with the SPLA-IO forces briefly capturing Panyume last year during a sharp escalation in Central Equatoria but were later dislodged by government troops, according to local officials.