Mr. Dengdit Ayok is Quitting the Regime Change Agenda, Political Activism, Requesting Security Guarantees and Returning Home

Mr. Dengdit Ayok Deng Agor Quitting the Regime Change Agenda, Political Activism, Requesting Security Guarantees and Returning Home

Fellow South Sudanese,

I left our beloved country, South Sudan, shortly after the December 2013 civil war, for Egypt on the 1^st day of February 2014, to be exact. The reason for leaving the country then was feeling unsafe in Juba because of my writings in the press, after having been arrested and detained twice. I continued my journalistic writings while in Egypt, and I launched a political campaign six years later, in June 2020 to oppose the Government of the Republic of South Sudan, becoming in a due course, a political activist and a member of nonviolent political opposition.

Ever since I launched my political activism, against the Government in Juba, I subsequently co-founded a new political movement called “The United Citizens for Change”, abbreviated as the (UCC), with other fellow political activists. We adopted the nonviolent approach for political change in the country through popular uprising. I have been very vocal with my former comrades against the Government of South Sudan, through various social media platforms and forums in the last five years. Nevertheless, I have decided to quit political activism and politics in general until further notice.

Moreover, I have quitted the regime change agenda, which I have been calling for through popular uprising. And I am therefore, no longer a part of any public or clandestine or media campaign activities aimed at changing the Government of South Sudan in Juba under the leadership of President Salva Kiir, as of today, the date of release of this press statement.

Fellow compatriots,

I have been in contact with the authorities in Juba in the last two weeks, and I have formally notified them of my decision to quit opposition, and abandoning the regime change agenda, and that I want to go back to the country as a citizen. I have asked for political amnesty and security guarantees as I am destined to go to Juba soon and to my hometown of Gogrial thereafter, to visit my father’s tomb and pay him tribute and stay with the family for a while. I was welcomed home by the authorities and assured of my safety when I arrive in Juba. I have also been assured that the President has immediately given the green light for my return to the concerned security authorities.

I thank and appreciate Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic, for his understanding and his immediate and unconditional approval of my return to the country as a normal citizen returning to his homeland after a decade abroad. With this, President Salva Kiir has proved to me personally, beyond reasonable doubt; that he is a caring father of the nation despite my harsh criticism against him as a leader and against his government in the last five years. This reminds me of his good friendship and comradeship with my late father, Ayok Deng Agor Wol, a veterinarian by profession, and a junior SPLA officer under the direct command of Commander Salva Kiir, during the hot days of the SPLA military offensives against the Khartoum regimes, for the liberation of our motherland. I give him my sincere vote of thanks and gratitude for showing me this kindheartedness. This public statement therefore signals the end of my criticism against him and his government, since I have made a decision to stop political criticism. I will not criticize him again. I would also like to ask for the forgiveness of any other persons whom I had verbally or in writing harshly criticized on social media.

I finally appreciate and commend the security authorities for their understanding, and for all the measures they have put in place to ensure my personal safety and security.

God bless South Sudan.

Dengdit Ayok Deng Agor

Former political activist and former leader of the UCC

Amhara Region of Ethiopia, Bahr Dar City