SUMMARY
The SSDM/A – Cobra Faction (South Sudan Defence Movement/Army – Cobra Faction) was a rebel group that had its roots in the SSDM/A but did not form as a splinter faction. Instead, the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction was independently established by ex-SSDM/A leader, David Yau Yau, in 2013; one year after the SSDM/A forces had been integrated into the Government of South Sudan forces in 2012. The SSDM/A – Cobra Faction maintained an incompatibility with the Government of South Sudan and sought to overthrow the regime. This resulted in several months of clashes before the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA) peace agreement was signed on 9 May 2014 (see Government of South Sudan – SSDM/A – Cobra Faction for more information). Accordingly, the forces of the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction began integrating into the government forces. However, they defected in September 2016 until March 2017, when the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction was officially dissolved and its fighters joined the National Salvation Front.
In April 2013, the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction published a manifesto outlining its objective as “the establishment of a free, just, democratic and decentralized system of governance and a social contract based on the free will and popular participation of all the people of South Sudan.” They also elaborated on the corruption, impunity, ethnic inequality and limited access to justice grievances that motivated their rebellion in the “Jebel Boma Declaration”, which was published alongside the manifesto.
The main base and area of operations for the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction was in Pibor county, although clashes sometimes expanded into the surrounding areas within Jonglei state. As part of the GPAA peace agreement in 2014, Pibor county was granted a higher level of autonomy from the government. It also included integration of troops and the implementation of several special programs. However, these had still not been implemented by 2016, which the group considered a failure by the government to uphold the peace agreement and motivated its defection in September.
The majority of SSDM/A – Cobra Faction troops were drawn from the Murle. Troop size estimates varied greatly as many of the Murle youth were attracted primarily by the opportunity to access weapons for their own purposes so they did not remain with the group consistently. Due to this, higher estimates put the force level at between 3000 and 6000 in 2013, whilst estimates from observers of the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction camp reported a more conservative core troop size of 500 to 1000. When SSDM/A – Cobra Faction defected from the Government of South Sudan in September 2016, the group claimed to have done so with 16 000 troops but this figure was not verified. The following month, another 5000 troops were reported to have defected from the government to join SSDM/A – Cobra Faction under the command of General John Welarum. In contrast however, the government reported that only eight troops had defected with the Welarum.
David Yau Yau, an ethnic Murle from the Ngarotti clan, was founder and leader of the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction. He came from Pibor county and had previously led a contingent of 200 troops as part of the SSDM/A because he failed to attain a state position during the 2010 elections (see Government of South Sudan – SSDM/A for more information). After SSDM/A signed a peace agreement in February 2012, Yau Yau and his troops were integrated into the government forces. However, Yau Yau defected from the Government of South Sudan during his integration and formed the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction because he considered his integration package a demotion and he was aggravated by the wider government abuse and marginalization of the Murle. Only a limited number of troops that had been under Yau Yau’s leadership in the SSDM/A joined him in the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction such as James Azeren Kong Kong, who had been Yau Yau’s second-in-command whilst he was in the SSDM/A and continued as deputy as part of the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction. After the peace agreement was signed in 2014, Yau Yau formally joined the Government of South Sudan as Deputy Defense Minister in January 2016.
Consequently, the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction defection from the government in September 2016 was not led by David Yau Yau, who remained with the Government of South Sudan. Instead General Khalid Boutros, an SSDM/A – Cobra Faction commander previously under Yau Yau and the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction signatory on the GPAA peace agreement of 2014, led the defection. General Khalid Boutros became the new leader of SSDM/A – Cobra Faction whilst Khalid Onuloki became the new Deputy Head. The commander of government forces in Boma state, General John Welarum, also defected to join the SSDM/A – Cobra Faction in October 2016.
