Mayom is a community in

Unity State Unity State, also known as Western Upper Nile, is a state in South Sudan. Unity state is in the Greater Upper Nile region. Unity is inhabited predominantly by two ethnic groups: the Nuer majority, and the Dinka minority. In 2015, a presidenti ...

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

to the west of

Bentiu Bentiu, also spelled Bantiu, is a city in South Sudan and capital of the state of Unity State. Location Bentiu is located in Rubkona County, Unity State, in northern South Sudan, near the international border with the Republic of the Sudan. It ...

. It is the headquarters of Mayom County.

Location

Mayom was a major cattle trading center in Western Upper Nile (now Unity State), in Bul Nuer territory. In peacetime the area around Mayom was sparsely populated by nomadic herders, with about one person per square mile. Mayom lies in the Block 4 oil concession to the south of the Kaikang oilfield.

Civil war

During the

Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originat ...

(1983-2005) Paulino Matiep Nhial became an Anyanya II leader in the Western Upper Nile (now Unity) state, supported by the Sudan Government against the

Sudan People's Liberation Army The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a ...

(SPLA). Based in the garrison town of Mayom, Paulino held a strategic position, preventing SPLA from Bahr el Ghazal to the west from attacking the oilfields. In September 1988

Riek Machar Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon (born 26 November 1952) is a South Sudanese politician who serves as the First Vice President of South Sudan. Political life In February 2020, Machar was re-sworn in as first vice president following a revitalised ...

's SPLA forces captured Mayom. In cooperation with army officer Omar al Bashir (soon to lead a coup and become President of Sudan) Paulino recaptured Mayom from the SPLA early in 1989. A report on refugees fleeing northward from Mayom and other communities in April 1993 described how they were robbed on their few belongings by Arab militias. One man was killed from trying to keep his remaining money, about US$200. Mayom was the base for the South Sudan Unity Army (SSUA) that Matiep formed early in 1998, incorporating his former

Anyanya II Anyanya II is the name taken in 1978 by a group of the 64 tribes of South Sudan dissidents who took up arms in All of Sudan. The name implies continuity with the Anyanya, or Anya-Nya, movement of the First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972). When ...

and South Sudan Defense Force (SSDN) Bul Nuer forces. The SSUA was supported by the Government of Sudan. In September 1999 commander Peter Gadet Yak of the SSDN mutinied, going over to the SPLA, and on 29 September shelled Mayom, causing further flight of civilians to Block 5A in the east of the state. A report from 2000 described Mayom as "a decimated village within the Talisman oil concession" and said that the government of Sudan was no longer allowing humanitarian aid flights to land.

Later events

On 11 April 2011 Major General Peter Gadet Yak, formerly of the SPLA and now of the "South Sudan Liberation Army", published the "Mayom Declaration". He denounced government by the "current corrupt gangs in Juba" and called for the government of Southern Sudan to be replaced by a national broad-base transitional government. On 29 December 2013, Mayom was seized by Nuer White Army militiamen, and the South Sudanese government, led by president

Salva Kiir Salva (Latin for "Save") may refer to: People *Francisco Salva Campillo (1751-1828), Spanish scientist * Ramon d'Salva (born 1921), Filipino actor * Héctor Salva (1939-2015), Uruguayan football midfielder *Salva Kiir Mayardit (born 1951), South ...

, is currently trying to take back the town.

References

Sources * * * * {{refend Populated places in Unity (state)