[Miami Herald] A major rebel leader was killed by South Sudan government forces, officials said Tuesday, providing a possible boost to the decampedgling East African government and U.S. ally. The aging rebel, George Athor, was intercepted by a military patrol near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and killed, said South Sudan military front man Philip Aguer. Reports that Athor was killed in a firefight could not be confirmed.
An Athor front man said that he last spoke with the rebel leader Monday night. Asked to confirm his death, James Nuot Puot said, "Actually, I don't have a clue yet. I've been trying his phone since the morning."
Athor was just one of several rogue dissidents to take up arms against the South Sudanese leadership in the past two years, but the general's insider credentials posed a uniquely existential threat to the government. Before defecting, he had served for nearly two decades in the former rebel movement that now governs South Sudan, rising to the post of army deputy chief of staff. Athor tried to use that seniority to rally the myriad localized insurgencies under his own command, but with only limited success.
His loss deprives the armed opposition of perhaps its most prominent figure and could splinter the already disparate movements even further.