South Sudan rebels seize Upper Nile’s Kuek town

Malakal/Juba, June 10, 2017 (SSNA) — South Sudanese main rebel movement, the SPLM/A-IO, under the leadership of Former first vice president Dr. Riek Machar has captured Kuek after three days of fierce fighting between government and rebel forces, the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) has learned.

The SSNA’s crew was granted full access by the SPLA-IO field Commanders to a full view of what the South Sudan News Agency editor called “purely chaotic.”

Videos filmed by the South Sudan News Agency show that forces loyal to the Former South Sudan’s Former Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, were in full control of the strategic town of Kuek.

The fighting, according to the SSNA transcripts, shows that government forces have been constantly bombarding rebel outposts, causing the armed opposition military command to issue an imminent attack on Kuek.

Duop Chak Wuol, the editor in chief of the South Sudan News Agency, told the SSNA field reporters that he is not ready to release the video to the public, citing an editorial pending review.

“Our current position is not to release these videos to the public, at least for now. These videos are purely chaotic. We will release them to the public when our journalistic review team is done with its work,” Duop said in a prepared statement released to the media.

“We urge everyone to be patience as our excellent journalists review these documents,” he asserted.

On Sunday morning, SSNA South Sudan team published a report of Kuek fighting, but the South Sudan News Agency management immediately ordered an immediate removal of the report, claiming, “some videos in the report need scrutiny.”

The South Sudan News Agency was contacted by many media outlets to confirm or deny its decision to remove its earlier report, but the SSNA management refused to deny or accept the report, citing its “non-disclosure policy.”

Fighting between South Sudan’s rival forces began on Friday morning after Juba-backed troops attacked rebel-held positions.

A United Nations Missions in South Sudan (UNMISS) source told the SSNA that “the world has no clue of what to do about South Sudan civil war.” The source protested that the new UN leadership is pursuing a “disastrous policy,” and suggests that the new UN comes up with a new policy.