Gen. John Kenyi Lotio (Kenyi Loburong) Defected from Gen. Thomas Cirillo

Date: June 20, 2024

Declaration from John Kenyi Lotio (Kenyi Loburong)

Dear Freedom Fighters,

Aware of the divisive and painful policies inflicted on the NAS movement by poor leadership of Gen. Thomas Cirillo Swaka which led to frustrations, defections, hatred, mistrust and factional divisions among officers since 2018.Dictated by the need to continue the struggle as mandated by goals and objectives of the movement to restore hope for our suffering people all over the country and those in diaspora, determined to regroup, reorganize, and re-motivate our freedom fighters for the sole purpose of achieving our set goals and objectives and the need to involve freedom fighters all over the country, to build a united South Sudanese Nationalism. I Gen. John Kenyi Lotio (Loburong), together with the forces loyal to me in the National Salvation Front NAS do hereby declare to operate independently as National Salvation United Forces free from the national Salvation Front command of General Thomas Cirillo Swaka with the aim to bring along and to unite the freedom fighters who have left the movement as results of bad polices perpetuated by the NAS leadership of Thomas Cirillo Swaka. The following circumstances informed this tough decision.

1) I quitted Riak Machar SPLM- IO because of bad policies of deception, tribalism, Nepotism, lies and unfulfilled promises with the hope that things may improve better under Gen. Thomas Cirillo Swaka, however to the contrary I met the worst. Gen. Thomas became a dictator, leader of rumor mongers and forgot the mission, goals and the underlined principles set to achieve the desired outcome.

2) Gen, Thomas founded the NAS movement in Diaspora, he continues living in the diaspora up to the moment. He has never seen or interacted with his field commanders one single day, He has not paraded or witness the burial of those who fell in the NAS battles in the bushes of South Sudan. He tries to control the movement from his brief case in western Europe.

3) Gen. Thomas appointed his high commanders from people who are either exhausted from previous wars and are not willing to fight or they fear their lives as he (Thomas) does or both. None of these commanders reported to the ground nor did I meet any of them. The general chief of staff and all members of his office with the exception of me as deputy chief of staff for training, remain loitering and become rumor mongers in towns since the formation of the military command council and their subsequent appointment in 2017.

4) Gen. Thomas Cirillo abandoned the promotion, and deployment policies of the movement. He embarked on promoting very junior officers of his favor to high ranks bypassing their superiors, and as well giving secret assignments without the knowledge of the person in charge of them on the ground. This has violated the military protocol and brought frustration among the officers because some officers feel special and therefore not responding to the already set system. This malpractice resulted into massive defections and disintegration of the NAS fighters into uncontrolled groups.

5) Gen. Thomas mobilized a separate force from the one I was leading without my knowledge using those newly promoted officers and ordered them to report to him directly. Those young officers refused to cooperate with the system resulting into confusion among NAS soldiers.

6) Gen. Thomas lacks the spirit of cooperation, appreciation and encouragement to the people who sacrificed and dedicated themselves voluntarily in bringing his names up on the international stage and laid a strong foundation for NAS while gaining nothing other than receiving hatred.

7) Gen. Thomas Cirillo kept a special group of officers in Kampala without rotation. This group became the source of all confusion and conspiracy against NAS senior officers as they considered themselves outside NAS field command. They do nothing, in Kampala other than spending money contributed for the war efforts, fabricating rumors, making allegations and instill hatred among officers on the ground. They are also responsible for making false allegation against officers who were eventually forced to defect to the enemy in fear of their lives.

8) Gen. Thomas Cirillo less assertive revolutionary leadership gave rise to many problems within the command structure including but are not limited to lack of effective written rules, effective communication policies to regulate the flow of information, orders, and/or commands. This gave room to less effective control, and loopholes in maintaining order, managing rumors, and to an extent execution of orders, hence makes it difficult to maintain discipline among the freedom fighters.

9) Gen. Thomas did not pay attention to the sick, or wounded soldiers. He mostly attends to his favored groups, which brought resentments, while demoralizing the
freedom fighters.

10) Gen. Thomas brought allegations against me concocted by those redundant officers in Kampala, and without any investigation or cross checking the authenticity of those claims with me declared secret war on me.

11) Gen. Thomas having done all these, I have been patient for the last 2 years waiting for resolutions to the accusations made against me, but instead went ahead to make new arrangements with the prime purpose to eliminate me. He continues blackmailing the most popular, strong and effective officers on the ground targeting them with false accusations and assassination plots in which some of them were forced to flee for their lives. In summary, although I established, build and consolidated NAS forces to the level which gave hope to the South Sudanese people, and brought Gen. Thomas himself forward, however Dear Gen. Thomas is destroying NAS by setting commanders against one another in a hidden agenda. Gen. Thomas currently portrays himself a leader of officers who he promoted, and who are corrupt, untrained cowards residing in Kampala and fearing to come to the ground to face assignments. They remain there looting the resources destined for those fighters suffering on the ground, they have let the movement down in the eyes of Gen. Thomas through deception, propaganda, lies and blackmailing of most popular and strong NAS commanders.

I therefore call upon those who were with me in the bushes but had to leave because of bad policies of Gen. Thomas Cirillo Swaka, to abandon our difference and join me to continue the struggle for freedom and justice in our country. You are the youth, and you must unite regardless of your tribes, ethnic groups, regional affiliations for the purpose of uniting our country. I have made this new call for action to continue the struggle to secure justice and equality. The future is yours; this is your time, and you need to make the right choices, together we shall win, and God bless South Sudan.

By: Gen. John Kenyi Lotio (Loburong)