Situation Update: Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan

Sarah Cleto’s tenure as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLA-IO) governor of Western Bahr el Ghazal is in trouble. Despite her grassroots popularity, members of the opposition are calling for her removal. Attempts to replace Cleto, however, have been stalled by internal power struggles—highlighting the complexities of Western Bahr el Ghazal’s ethnic politics.

The Fertit community is a minority group in South Sudan that inhabit the former Western Bahr el Ghazal state. Out of it grew an opposition that came to form one of the many groups to take up arms against the Dinka dominated government in Juba and align with Riek Machar’s opposition coalition, the SPLA-IO.