Treason trial begins for South Sudan VP Machar as ‘unity government’ breaks

The latest interruption betwixt the 2 foremost subject and governmental leaders risks igniting civilian warfare again for the embattled nation.

South Sudan has started holding a proceedings for First Vice President Riek Machar, who has been sacked by his decades-long rival, President Salva Kiir, and charged with murder, treason and crimes against humanity successful narration to rebellion and an onslaught by a militia linked with taste tensions.

Machar and 7 others who person been charged alongside him, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol, were seen sitting wrong a barred cage successful the tribunal connected Monday during a unrecorded broadcast connected nationalist television.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3More than 200 arrested aft anticorruption protests successful Philippines
• list 2 of 3North Korea’s Kim says unfastened to US talks if denuclearisation demands dropped
• list 3 of 3South Korean Unification Church person faces apprehension successful bribery case

Machar has been held successful location apprehension astatine his residence successful the capital, Juba, for months pursuing investigations by the authorities of his allies.

The Trial of Dr. Riek Machar Teny https://t.co/3T7CVp2ZDR

— South Sudan Eagles Media (@ssemtv) September 22, 2025

Earlier this month, a decree work connected authorities vigor said Kiir suspended the archetypal vice president owed to charges stemming from his alleged engagement successful attacks by the White Army against national forces successful March.

The White Army, a escaped set of equipped youths, attacked a subject basal successful Nasir, northeastern South Sudan, and killed much than 250 soldiers connected Machar’s orders, according to the government.

Edmund Yakani, enforcement manager of South Sudan activistic radical Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told section media that the proceedings indispensable beryllium transparent and just to physique up spot successful the judicial system.

He urged some leaders and their parties to “adhere to the rule of resolving governmental misunderstanding done dialogue” alternatively than violence, which would payment nary one.

Machar’s party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in Opposition (SPLM/IO), has called the charges “fabricated” and said its members were arrested illegally. Machar’s lawyer connected Monday said “an incompetent court” that lacks jurisdiction is judging him.

Fears of a instrumentality to ruinous civilian war

After the vice president’s arrest, the United Nations Mission successful South Sudan (UNMISS) called connected each parties to workout restraint and warned that they risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past 7 years” and returning to a authorities of civilian war.

South Sudan is the world’s youngest state and besides 1 of its astir impoverished.

In 2013, 2 years aft the state gained independency from Sudan pursuing decades of war, oil-producing South Sudan descended into a civilian war.

The devastating conflict, which scarred the state and near immoderate 400,000 radical killed, pitted Kiir and his allies from the taste Dinka radical against Machar, who is from the Nuer, the second-largest taste radical successful South Sudan.

More than 4 cardinal people, oregon astir one-third of the population, were displaced from their homes earlier a 2018 bid woody saw the brace signifier a “national unity” government.

But they ne'er afloat saw eye-to-eye, leaving the state successful a authorities of limbo.

Both leaders held connected to their equipped factions that were ne'er afloat integrated and unified despite agreements, portion reforms were delayed, and statesmanlike elections were repeatedly postponed.

Armed clashes person erupted successful respective parts of the state implicit the past months, with some sides accusing each different of breaking ceasefire agreements.

Authorities successful South Sudan are, successful the meantime, plundering billions of dollars successful nationalist funds arsenic the impoverished state besides deals with a deepening nutrient crisis, according to the UN.

“The state has been captured by a predatory elite that has institutionalised the systematic looting of the nation’s wealthiness for backstage gain,” the UN Commission connected Human Rights successful South Sudan said past week.