President Salva Kiir confers honours to South Sudanese military officers. PHOTO/COURTESY
By PATRICK MAYOYO
newsdesk@reporter.co.ke
The US Government has slapped sanctions against former Sudan People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff General Paul Malong Awan Anei.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, today froze General Malong’s assets in the US and blocked him from involving in business with any individual or entity in US or any other country .
Under the US OFAC designated persons provisions, all assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction of the designated individuals and entities, and of any other entities blocked by operation of law as a result of their ownership by a sanctioned party, are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealings with them.
Additionally, non-US persons could face sanctions for knowingly facilitating significant transactions for or on behalf of the individuals or entities blocked.
General Malong who fell out with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, is currently staying in Kenya and is believed to have accumulated massive wealth while serving as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff . He runs Malong Foundation www.malongfoundation.org
General Malong born early 1962 in Warawar, is a South Sudanese politician and military figure. He has formerly served as governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal from 27 March 2008 to 2014.
As a young man, Malong attended basic schools in his home village. After his father was killed in the late 1965s, Malong moved to Muglad, where he completed his primary school in 1969 in Sudan. He had his intermediate education at St. James in Khartoum, where he participated in the clandestine formation of the Anyanya II movement in the Bahr el Gazal area.
According to Wikipedia Malong has more than 100 wives.
Thereafter, when he left to join the SPLM/A, arriving in July 1984 in Ethiopia, Malong, was transferred to the Steel (Hadit) Battalion of Koryom Division. He went to Officers’ Cadet and graduated with the rank of captain in July the same year. After his graduation he was transferred to Northern Upper Nile around the Maban area.
He returned to Itang, which was then the second largest refugee camp in Ethiopia. After a few months of lull, he was recalled and commissioned to the rank of major in October 1985. He was then posted to Southern Blue Nile in the Eagle Battalion, where he spent three years at the battle front.
Former Sudan People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff General Paul Malong Awan Anei. PHOTO/COURTESY
In April 2014 General Malong was appointed Chief of General Staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army by the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit. He became army chief, replacing James Hoth Mai.
In December 2016, he was flown to Nairobi, Kenya for treatment in Nairobi Hospital after fell unconscious and collapsed in Juba.
In May 2017, President Kiir issued a presidential decree replacing him with General James Ajonga Mawut. He left Juba with his officials, but they did not reach their destination as they were accused of making rebellion. The officials in Yirol lured Gen. Paul Malong and his companions to get back to Juba because the government was in fear that they would sparked a rebellion.
But Gen Paul Malong expelled the accuse, saying to Eye Radio on phone from Yirol, “I want to live as a normal person, as you know that this month of May is all concerning cultivation; my tractors are already in the fields that is why you have seen me heading to Aweil”.
Malong also said, “Whatever has been said, there is no reality, because if I wanted to have a problem that problem should be in Juba,” he told Radio Miraya FM, a United Nations radio station.
General Malong. PHOTO/COURTESY
During the Anti-Nuer pogroms in 2013, much of the killings were carried out by a group known as “Dot Ke Beny” (Rescue the President) or “Mathiang Anoor” (Brown caterpillar), a militia of Dinkas formed for the protection of president Kiir and Paul Malong Awan.
The US pushed for an arms embargo and sanctions on Machar and General Malong through the Security Council, but it failed to receive enough votes to pass in December 2016.
