South Sudan :41st Anniversary Celebrations of SPLA Shelved

By Deng Machol

JUBA, South Sudan - There will be no official celebration of the 41st anniversary of Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) Day due to the current economic hardships and competing priorities, the army spokesperson announced.

“Holding celebrations countrywide requires a huge budget," Major Gen. Lul Ruai Koang told the press in Juba's capital of South Sudan, adding that we have competing priorities. 

"We say yes it is good to celebrate when we have plenty," he said.

Lul added individuals and groups are free to peacefully and responsibly celebrate in their ways and places of choice.

According to  Lul, the army is reserving “the little resources to cater for most pressing issues. 

The SPLA Day is a national public holiday that commemorates the foundation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army on May 16th, 1983, a rebel movement led by its Commander-in-Chief John Garang de Mabior.

The founding of the SPLA started the second civil war in Sudan, following the defection of southerners in the Sudanese army affected the 1972 Addis Ababa peace agreement that was abrogated by former Sudan’s president, Jaafar Nimeiri.

Which continued for 21 years, killed over two million people, and displaced millions but led to the independence of the world’s youngest nation as part of a peace agreement signed in 2005.

The army has not been celebrating in the recent past for the same reason that our economy is in distress.

On this day, South Sudanese remember the contributions of the heroes and heroines who fought to bring about the country’s independence.

After South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, the SPLA became the army of the new country but suffered splinter in 2013 after the forces loyal to President Salva Kiir battled Riek Machar, turned deputy President's forces.

The SPLA was then renamed the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) in 2018, partly because it has splintered into so many groups over the past years until now.