Photo File: Vice-President of South Sudan, Riek Machar

South Sudan’s political landscape has been thrown into fresh turmoil following the dramatic charging of the country’s First Vice-President, Riek Machar, with murder, treason and crimes against humanity, a development that has raised fears of a relapse into civil war.

The charges, announced by Justice Minister Joseph Geng Akech, are linked to a deadly March attack in Nasir, where the White Army militia, allegedly loyal to Machar, overran a military base, killing 250 soldiers including a general, and also firing on a UN helicopter which resulted in the death of its pilot. Since the incident, Machar has been under house arrest in the capital, Juba, with heavy military deployment as tanks and armed soldiers continue to barricade the roads leading to his residence.

In his statement, the Justice Minister insisted that the case would send a clear message that atrocities against the people of South Sudan, its armed forces and humanitarian workers would not go unpunished, regardless of the political stature of those involved. He further cautioned that the matter was already before the courts and should therefore not be subjected to political or diplomatic interference. Alongside Machar, seven of his close allies, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol and Army Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Gabriel Duop Lam, have also been charged and remain in detention, while thirteen others accused of complicity are still at large. Both Machar and Chol have additionally been suspended from their government roles following an announcement broadcast on state television.

Reacting to the development, Machar’s spokesperson, Puok Both Baluang, dismissed the charges as a political witch-hunt engineered by President Salva Kiir’s camp, describing the entire episode as a deliberate attempt to dismantle the fragile peace agreement brokered in 2018 which had ended a five-year civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead. He also accused the judiciary of lacking independence, alleging that the courts in South Sudan function as political tools under the control of the ruling elite. The March attack has further inflamed ethnic tensions, as the White Army militia is largely drawn from the Nuer ethnic group, to which Machar belongs, and which has historically been in conflict with Kiir’s Dinka community.

The unfolding crisis is seen as the most serious test yet for South Sudan’s fragile unity government. Since the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of armed struggle, it has been rocked by instability, with the Machar–Kiir rivalry at the heart of the conflict that erupted into full-scale civil war in 2013 before the 2018 peace deal. With renewed political hostilities, the United Nations, African Union and neighbouring countries have all called for calm to prevent the charges and detentions from reigniting another round of violence in the oil-rich but conflict-weary nation.