03/05/2025
President Salva Kiir’ War
‘In war, fathers bury their sons.’ – Herodotus
May 2nd, 2025
By James Nguen
For the last 40 years, in my home country, South Sudan, fathers have been burying their sons or both got buried by a total stranger in respect of the dead. Morally and spiritually, often, this is to dignify the dead in the name of the kuoth.
But, if both father and son weren’t lucky, their bodies. would rot under the ferocious sun of the savannah and be picked on by birds of the black soil. This sad undertaking was and still is the order of things in my beloved country.
Truth be told, during the struggle, in the 1970s through the 90s, they said, we were fighting for freedom and for a dignified life for ourselves and our children. They say, “if we don’t end the war, war will end us” and will end us forever. This appeared to be a fat ass lie. Why fight now aimlessly if our leaders meant business? I know war is a beast or a bitch for that matter. It must be fought on reasonable and solid grounds.
A decision to take arms and fight contrary to peaceful resolution of things is a tall sacrifice. In war, other people children and fathers must die and dies in big numbers. As such, the war option must be a resounding reason. War must not and shall never be fought on faulty grounds.
Sadly, the raging war in South Sudan is President Salva Kiir’s MEANINGLESS WAR. It is not a war of the Dinka against the Nuer or against the Equatorians. It is a boldface war of Salva Kiir and his in-laws against all of us and against the country we all fought for and liberated.
Several attempts were made to falsify the intent of the war to fit a certain narrative. A false narrative aimed to position members of the Dinka Community above everyone else. These attempts failed or are failing.
Some quarters felt it was a fictitious plan, it wasn't. It was an impracticable plan of the last fools. People sat down, and scraped out a plan in words and actions. They said the plan should give every Dinka’s child better chances over other people’s children in South Sudan, but this plan was done without asking for Dinka Community’s consent.
Salva Kiir was positioned to execute the plan. In this regard, Kiir and his strategists made it abundantly clear that a war must be fought to create opportunities for members of the Dinka Community. In doing so, a fictitious enemy to fight against must be manufactured or created. Nuer as a community was marked and identified to be that fictitious enemy to fight against.
For example, favorable faulty conditions were created to force members of the Dinka community to accept the poorly coded verdict. That Nuer as people and community is their enemy and must be fought against at all cost. This is the plan, plain and simple. And it is being executed. Whether the rest of us like it or not, the plan is set in motion.
However, before anything else, on a personal note, in these confusing times, characterized by tribal rhetoric, misinformation, manipulations, fake news, press releases, short clips from tik-Tok, soundbites from club house, snapchat, Facebook live and Instagram, I have one confession. I missed my colleague. One of the fine writers, Deng Yiech Bachech. I wish Deng was here, alive and writing about all these shenanigans.
Deng was a colleague, a brother and a highly valued countryman of my generation and in the pen world. Deng was a political enthusiast, an eloquent and provocative writer. I envied his writing style and eloquence with words. Words which are often underscored by logical reasonings.
I wish Deng was here to write on the capture of Nasir by the White Army and death of Gen. Majur Dak, under this mix of confused and tribal politics. I wish Deng Yiech was alive to help write edge-cutting articles to enlighten quasi- intellectuals on social media.
I wish Deng was alive to write and help us assassinate with words the prevailing situation in my beloved country. In all manner of things, Deng would write with colorful words with unmistakable meanings.
In all honesty, I missed this man, and I must conclude that death is an enemy of good citizens and fine country men. As I conclude this part, let me say, let the goddamn unknown creator of BEING protect Deng’s precious yiee (soul) taken prematurely and to rest in eternal peace.
Back to business, to President Salva Kiir’s war. Yes, the war being fought in South Sudan is Salva Kiir’s war. It is not a Dinka’ war against all of us. The majority of the Dinka community have refused to fight this senseless war. They have rejected Kiir’s half-baked propaganda. A propaganda infested with hatred against others and the Nuer.
Also, the Dinka have rejected false claim that Dinka as people and community is under serious threat, and must react to defend herself from nothingness is too a white lie. Dinka as a community was set up and served as a victim of circumstances.
The Dinka I know are aware that they are not under any threat. What they must do is to untangle the wrong being paddle to muddy the water in their name. The idea that Dinka is under threat was cooked and stands as a fat ass lie.
If anything, it is not the Dinka who are under serious threat from anyone, but the Nuer who were identified, marked as enemies and condemned by bombing using chemical weapons and categorizing them as foe. This is the unmistakable truth.
Similarly, it is true that the whole country is under serious threat from Salva Kiir Mayardit. If anything, to go by, President Salva Kiir is an ENEMY and MUST GO in order to save the skin and the soul of our nation.
In the recent past, back in time, a decade ago, it is true that Dinka in 2013 were brainwashed, misled and falsely convinced that the WAR then was between the Dinka and the Nuer. The argument then was that the Nuer were mobilizing and determined to take the Dinka Government by force as if there was a Dinka government to begin with. Sadly, this card was played and managed to convince and mobilize some Dinka knuckleheads in their thousands.
As a result, 20,000 innocent Nuer civilians were murdered in a door-to-door search, identified and killed in Juba. Subsequently, in the eyes of the world, the region and South Sudanese at large, Dinka as people and community lost respect due to that sad and heightened ignorance led by a sea of fools.
This time around however, in 2025, most Dinka are enlightened and recognized the truth. Thus, they have refused to fight for Salva Kiir’s STUPID WAR. For the record, some brave Dinka called Salva Kiir out and bravely condemned his evil acts against the Nuer and the people of South Sudan.
This is one of the unquestionable truths.
Knowing this reality, President Salva Kiir ventured out for a hire in the neighboring country of Uganda. In doing so, it is important to point out that Salva Kiir has betrayed and sold our nation's sovereignty and shamed our people. Kiir has too shamed his community, the Dinka Community who fought for him in 2013.
This was a national disgrace for the Dinka people. It is sad that Salva Kiir betrayed Dinka and left the community in utter despair, disillusionment and also left his rug tag tribal militias unpaid for good 2 years. Instead, Kiir hired and paid Ugandans with millions of dollars.
Precisely, President Salva hired the Uganda People Defense Forces (UPDF), including its air power with millions of dollars to kill the Nuer. This decision is burying the nation alive without the Nuer nation and the Dinka intellectuals who are tossed aside or labelled as rebels.
Considering the mode of payment for hired Ugandans, it was reported that one Ugandan soldier earns $200 per day. Salva Kiir hired 10,000 Ugandan soldiers. These soldiers are now roaming majestically in South Sudan’s capital Juba. The UPDF are manning the Ministries Road, the Bilpham Road and the entire airport. With this development, you will agree that our country is under foreign evasion and must be liberated.
In terms of cost, let’s do some math to ascertain the facts. As we are well aware that numbers don't lie. With the given figure above, President Salva pays the UPDF $60,000,000 a month. We are not done yet! Salva has hired Uganda’s military hardware including tanks, armored vehicles and 5 helicopter gunships. Sources have revealed that a use of one gunship armed with 4-barrel bombs and machine gun is $50,000 per day, and while a tank, pickup truck and an armored vehicle were hired for $1,000 per day.
There are 50 Ugandan military hardware including tanks, armored vehicles and pick-up trucks on the grounds in South Sudan too.
My stupid math tells me that these military tanks, pick-up trucks and armored vehicles cost South Sudan $1.5 million per month. For 5 helicopter gunships, let’s estimate that all are used 25 times a month which cost of $1,250,000. In this regard, the total expenditure a month is $62,750,000 that South Sudan Government pay to the Government of Uganda.
With that information under your belt, let me zero in on some Dinka who are being used by Kiir to fight his war.
Dinka Padang in Upper Nile and Dinka Malual Giernyang from Awiel are the ones being used. Therefore, we can all agree that they are useful idiots because there is no reason for the war being fought and for them to accept to fight for it.
The Dinka in Jonglei have refused to fight Kiir’s war and have no foot soldiers but officers. The same is true to the Dinka in Tonj. Dinka in Tonj refused to partake in Kiir’s war immediately after Gen. Akol Kor Kuch was humiliated and placed under house arrest without traceable reasons. Similarly, the Dinka from the Lake State are mostly officers too with few foot soldiers.
The Dinka from Twic Mayardit have deserted Kiir's Regime long ago. Most of them have gone to the cattle camps while some of them are now in their houses in Juba. The Twic Mayardit deserted Salva Kiir’s camp after Kiir had armed the Dinka Nyok from Abyei to kill the people of Twic Mayardit and took their land, Aneet.
With this valuable information, we can conclude that only some Dinka are being use senselessly. The Dinka who are being used and are aggressively fighting for President Salva Kiir’s WAR alongside the highly paid UPDF are from Aweil and Padang.
It is true that other Dinka call Dinka folks from Aweil as “goddamn majority” and can literally fight any war when fed. Therefore, dying aimlessly for Dinka Aweil is not an issue for them at all. This indeed explains their active participation in the current senseless conflict.
With Dinka Padang’s state of affairs, you will agree that they are the manipulated and marginalized Dinka submissive fools.
In President Salva Kiir’s war, they are misled and brainwashed and instructed to fight to liberate nonexistent land from the Jikany Nuer.
As a matter of fact, they were trained, armed and ordered to kill the Nuer in Nasir and Ulang Counties in order to take their lands back. In all honesty, this is impractical and delusional act to say the least.
Some recorded videos from Dinka Padang showcased their plans and objectives. In these videos, they have called for the extermination of the Nuer in the East bank of the Nile River. Whether they will succeed, we leave that to chance, Ngundeng and future to tell.
In closing, it must be made categorically clear that the war being fought in South Sudan is President Salva Kiir’s war and not a Dinka’s war. Also, the Dinka Awiel and Padang must reject being use senselessly and aimlessly as human shields.
The writer is a South Sudanese living in Juba. He can be reached at [email protected].
