SPLA attacks rebel hideouts in Unity State

The attack on 8 May, killing 38 militia members, was launched in a remote village of Nyadiet in western Mayom County, according to the Unity State government spokesman, Gideon Gatpan Thoar,

For background information read "Peter Gadet's Rebellion" by the Small Arms Survey

Thoar added that militias supported by the Khartoum-backed Sudan Army forces (SAF) were set to lay land mines in the south to disrupt transportation during independence celebrations on 9 July.

"The Nyadiet area was used as a hideout position for the militia," he said. Lt. General James Gatduel Gatluak of the SPLA Division 4 Command, said a second SPLA offensive on 9 May killed 46 rebels.  SPLA soldiers seized rebels' ammunition, landmines, VHF radios, machine guns and documents that purportedly reveal links between the militias and the SAF.

The militias reportedly came from the village of Timtha in South Kordofan State, a position held by SAF renegades for arms and logistical support for rebel armies.

Soldiers of Peter Gatdet's militia before his most recent defection - © Jason Brooks

"Many military were captured and they are in good condition," he said, "but the rest are camped in Kuiy Koy," an area north of Nyadiet.

Bol Gatkuoth Kol, the spokesman of the rebel South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), denied SPLA claims that 84 rebel soldiers were killed in the two attacks, saying the SSLA captured around 60 SPLA troops in Warrab State on 9 May.

Kol also denied any military support from the SAF, saying SSLA troops are moving at large in Unity State with no base in South Kordofan, which lies across the state border in the north.

Kol claims the militias' ammunition come from SPLA soldiers who, like Peter Gatdet Yaka, defected from divided forces across the ten states of Southern Sudan.