Thomas Cirillo Swaka

Talks in Rome designed to bring R-ARCSS holdouts – such as Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka and former Salva-ally and strongman General Paul Malong Awan – back inside the fold keep collapsing...

Attempts to bring hold-out forces on board by the Rome-based Sant'Egidio Catholic community resulted in a truce with the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance coalition of nine groups including those led by powerful former army chief Paul Malong Awan former deputy chief of staff and Equatorian strongman Thomas Cirillo Swaka and former secretary-general of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) Pa'gan Amum Okiech...

Adding a further dimension to armed group activism is a spate of recent cross-border attacks into Ituri by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) who are hunting down South Sudanese ethnic Kakwa rebels affiliated to Thomas Cirillo and his National Salvation Front rebel group (AC Vol 58 No 22 No let-up in southern fighting)...

The government army loyal to President Salva Kiir Mayardit (now known as the South Sudan People's Defence Force – SSPDF) has made common cause with Riek Machar's SPLA-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) in a joint offensive against members of the National Salvation Front which backs the Equatorian strongman Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka in his refusal to sign last year's Khartoum Peace Agreement (AC Vol 59 No 19 No cash no peace)...

Former Deputy Chief of Staff Lt Gen Thomas Cirillo Swaka founder of the National Salvation Front (NAS) maintains that the deal fails to address the root causes of the governance crisis and particularly the 'over-concentration of political and fiscal power' which has allowed an ongoing land-grab by Dinka supporters of the President (AC Vol 59 No 2 Cycle of broken deals)...

' South Sudan oppositionists told Africa Confidential some of them were bullied by Sudanese intelligence into signing the deal which also tried to circumvent one opposition leader opposed to the pact Thomas Cirillo by attempting to push one of his deputies to sign in his stead and claim Cirillo had been replaced...

Largely based in Central and Eastern Equatoria states led by former SPLA Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka who defected from the government in early 2017 represents the growing frustration of many Equatorians at the dominance of Dinka and Nuer strongmen constantly fighting for power...

Not mentioned prominently is Thomas Cirillo who is having trouble changing role from soldier to politician...

The rebellion has further metastasised with the March defection of senior Equatorian personnel headed by the former Sudan People's Liberation Army Deputy Chief of Staff Thomas Cirillo Swaka to form the National Salvation Front which is recruiting well from the many Equatorians unhappy with the economic and agricultural collapse that the political infighting has visited on their hitherto productive region (AC Vol 58 No 22 No let-up in southern fighting)...

Nicknamed NAS meaning 'people' in Juba Arabic the National Salvation Front is led by the SPLA's former Deputy Chief of Staff Thomas Cirillo (AC Vol 46 No 10 Running the South)...