More South Sudanese officials quit unity gov't

Two senior South Sudanese military officials have resigned from the country's military courts, bringing to four the number of top officials who have quit the transitional unity government in about a week.

In his resignation letter, former head of South Sudan's military courts Col. Khalid Ono Loki accused the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leadership of corruption, human rights abuses and favoritism in the military.

"As per the terms of my employment, I am bound to follow merely the regulations, laws and the state constitution to the zenith, albeit, your office is not co-operating en route for realization of that, instead, it is paddling against the current and contrary to this veracity," Loki said in the letter.

Another official, Gen. Henry Oyay Nyago, also resigned as Head of Military Justice in the SPLA, according to a letter released on Saturday.

He accused the Kiir administration of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses such as rape, organized killings, arbitrary arrests and forceful confiscation of civilians' property.

Military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang denied Loki's claim, saying that Loki had defected to the armed opposition six months ago.

"This officer who is saying that he has resigned from the national army is now trying to attract attention by turning it into a resignation yet in fact it was a defection with no consequences," Koang said.

Koang declined to comment on the resignation Nyago.

Last Friday, Gabriel Duop Lam quit as labor minister and rejoined rebel leader Riek Machar's movement.

Government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth on Friday confirmed Lam's defection to the armed opposition, adding that the SPLM/A-In opposition (SPLA/M-IO) splinter group led by Taban Deng Gai in Juba had been tasked to find a replacement.

Last week top general, Thomas Cirillo Swaka, former deputy chief of logistics, resigned from the SPLA accusing the army of being turned into a tribal army dominated by ethnic Dinka.

South Sudan has been devastated by a civil war that broke out in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup. Machar denied the accusation but then mobilized a rebel force.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 led to the formation of a transitional unity government in April, but was again devastated by fresh violence in July, 2016.

Tens of thousands of South Sudanese have been killed, with over 2 million displaced and another 4.6 million left severely food insecure, since December 2013. Endit