South Sudan’s Vice-President Riek Machar has been charged with homicide, treason and crimes against humanity over an assault by an ethnic militia on a navy base that killed greater than 250 troopers, the justice minister mentioned Thursday (September 10, 2025).
A fragile power-sharing settlement between President Salva Kiir and his first Vice-President Machar has been unravelling for months on the planet’s youngest nation.
In early March, a militia from Mr. Machar’s ethnic Nuer neighborhood often called the White Army attacked a navy base in Nasir County, Upper Nile State within the northeast of the nation.
The authorities says Mr. Machar was accountable and has now charged him and 20 others with homicide, conspiracy, terrorism, treason, destruction of public property and crimes against humanity.
“These crimes were marked by gross violations of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, including the desecration of corpses, persecution of civilians, and attacks on humanitarian workers,” Justice Minister Joseph Geng Akech mentioned, in line with a read-out supplied to reporters in Juba.
Mr. Kiir quickly after issued a presidential decree stripping Mr. Machar of his authorities place, alongside with one other co-accused, petroleum minister Puot Kang Choi, in line with a press release on state tv.
Deadly assault
The navy base in Nasir was overrun by the White Army between March 3 and seven.
Several senior officers together with a normal died and a United Nations helicopter got here underneath fireplace whereas making an attempt to rescue troopers on the base, resulting in the dying of a pilot.
“This case sends a clear message: those who commit atrocities against the people of South Sudan, against our armed forces, and against humanitarian personnel will be held accountable, no matter their position or political influence,” the Minister mentioned within the assertion.
The U.N., which operates a significant peace-building mission in South Sudan, mentioned on the time that the nation was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress”.
Mr. Kiir had already been shifting for months to consolidate energy and sideline Mr. Machar, who was positioned underneath home arrest a couple of weeks after the assault, whereas lots of his allies have additionally been detained.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 however was rapidly plunged right into a devastating five-year civil conflict between Mr. Kiir and Mr. Machar that left some 400,000 useless.
The conflict ended with a power-sharing settlement in 2018 however makes an attempt by the worldwide neighborhood to make sure a democratic transition have failed.
Elections that have been as a consequence of happen in December 2024 have been as soon as once more postponed for 2 years.
South Sudan has additionally made headlines after the United States deported eight convicted criminals to the nation in July, solely one among whom was South Sudanese.
