A powerful South Sudanese army officer and former militia leader has died, officials said on Wednesday. Paulino Matip, deputy commander in chief of South Sudan's national army, was influential in some of the country's richest oil regions during its long civil war with the north.
Matip was a key figure in the civil war that killed an estimated 2 million people and left the now-independent South one of the world's least developed countries.
South Sudan seceded from Sudan a year ago under a 2005 peace deal and the new government has been struggling to impose its authority over a country the size of France awash with guns.
Backed by Khartoum, Matip had split from the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) during the war and battled factions of the rebel army in areas of the oil-rich Unity State.
He rejoined the SPLA in 2006 under President Salva Kiir's "big tent" policy of reconciliation to unite the South after the peace deal.
"Unity and reconciliation"
Matip "contributed a lot to the unity and reconciliation in this country," South Sudan's Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters after announcing he had died in Kenya of a "long illness" while waiting to fly to the United States for treatment.
His body is due to be flown to Juba on Friday for burial.
"I think the problems of cohesion were resolved by Paulino Matip," Benjamin said.
Historians describe Matip as a man driven more by ambition during the war than by ideology.
He was "the quintessential freebooter, willing to ally himself with God or the devil, depending on which would supply him with the resources to sustain his panache and his private army," Sudan historian Robert O. Collins wrote.
"Small trading empire"
One of his main interests during the war was protecting and developing a "small trading empire" based on cattle and sorghum in the areas near Bentiu, capital of Unity State, according to historian Douglas Johnson.
Rebel fighting and clashes between rival communities over cattle and other conflicts have killed hundreds of people since South Sudan's independence, mostly in remote areas. The army is composed largely of former militias like Matip's.
Information Minister Benjamin dismissed the suggestion that the SPLA would see any splits or defections because of Matip's death.
"We don't foresee any division of any kind. After all what we were all fighting for was to get our country. Here it is today," he said.
Source: Reuters
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Call a war hero a dog is not very respectful that why s Sudan will never go no were instead moving forward
We had one minded people n that will not make us any better look wt Ethiopian they honor there president but south
Still fighting with you even when the person die Rest in Peace hero Mario..
I did not deny that Matip was a war hero-just like Osama Bin Laden was also a war hero depending on who you talk to. Did you read the rest of what I said?
Every dog has its own day. Matip had his too. What else did he want? He fed his greed by playing his cards well. At times he was with Bashir and when things went sour in the North and south promising, he wiggled his way back in the name of uniting the country-what a joke? Let him rest in peace!
Good news for south Sudan people mrs Motip has die let him go anyway he kill alot during the war time. we the south sudanese people has nothing to ruin at all. He is gone now and many leader will soon followed. sooner the big change we all believe in is coming to the south sudan.
what i need those said to paulino matip
i know some are not for what matip did for the independent of south Sudan
but aware through our president on achievement Dane by matip including what he was did in khartoum 2005 when doctor dies
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