Sudan arrests NAS officers for purchasing army uniforms

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), its most powerful paramilitary group, arrested four members of a South Sudanese rebel group in Khartoum.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said the four members of the rebel group National Salvation Front (NAS) were involved in the purchase of 150 military uniforms.

The RSF spokesman Jamal Juma disclosed that the four rebel officers are facing charges of "disturbing security, purchasing uniforms and military insignia, stirring up war against the state, transnational organized crime, sabotage and war, and disturbing relations with South Sudan.”

Juma said they had reports that the four rebel officers were in the capital Khartoum to buy military uniforms of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.

The statement quoted Major General Sabit Kong Kuon, who was identified as a NAS commander for Upper Nile saying that he was tasked to buy 300 military uniforms of the Sudanese army for their fighters in South Sudan’s Upper Nile region.

For his part, NAS spokesperson Suba Samuel confirmed to Radio Tamazuj that four of their officers had been arrested in Khartoum.

“We are still investigating the issue to know what happened exactly. We are not aware of the issue of military uniforms, so we are yet to get more details,” he said.

Gen. Thomas Cirillo, a former deputy chief of staff in South Sudan’s military, defected in March 2017 and formed the National Salvation Front (NAS), one of many splinter opposition groups in South Sudan.

NAS is also a member of South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA), a coalition of holdout opposition groups that signed a truce agreement with the government of President Salva Kiir in Rome, Italy on 12 January.