Month March 2025

The government said on Friday that First Vice President, Riek Machar, currently under house arrest will be investigated over claims that he instigated his forces to rebel against the government to disrupt peace.
“Since the beginning of March, 2025 and according to intelligence and security reports, Dr.Riek Machar, the First Vice President, Chairman and C-in-C of the SPLA-IO, had been in contact with his bases on the ground and specifically with the politicians and commanders of SPLA-IO agitating them to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace, so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war,” said Michael Makuei Lueth, the Minister of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services at a press conference in Juba

Over 222 integrated forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army- in opposition (SPLA-IO) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, on Friday announced their defection to the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and other regular forces.

The regular forces include police, wildlife officers, National Security Services, and prison services, were trained and stationed across various military fields of Gutmakur, Muni, Luri, Rajap, and Rumbur.

Capt. Alison Lokule, commanding officer of the defected forces, accused Machar of nepotism, referring to him as an ‘anti-peace element.’

The Political Bureau members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in opposition (SPLM-IO) on Friday called on all the parties to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement to resume dialogue in order to de-escalate the spiraling situation in the country.
“We will continue to work with the President of the Republic, the other parties in the government, to bring about peace and calm and reconciliation in our country,” said Stephen Par Kuol, the SPLM- IO Chairperson of the National Committee for Peace, Reconciliation and Healing at a press conference in Juba.

The South Sudan Law Society on Friday held symposium to create awareness on the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians which calls on warring parties to adhere to humanitarian law during any conflict.
Gasper Amule, a member of the South Sudan Law Society said they organized the workshop to develop the strategies to increase awareness on the Geneva Conventions and the Geneva Conventions Act 2012 in the country.
“The aim of this stakeholders briefing is of course, to create awareness on the Geneva Conventions related to regulations of war that South Sudan has ratified, as well as the law adopted in 2012, which is to really implement the Geneva Conventions,” Amule told journalists in Juba.

The South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Friday plans to conduct a labor force and migrants survey.

Dr. Augustino Ting Mayai, Chairperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, said in a statement that the survey will be conducted in the coming months, adding that the data will be beneficial for policy and planning purposes.

Stella Kafuki Wani, 22, was among many South Sudanese students whose learning was disrupted for three weeks, after the government ordered countrywide closure of schools in February due to extreme weather.

She was among hundreds of students who attended a lecture on heatstroke prevention measures, delivered on Friday by the 12th batch of the Chinese medical team during their visit to Supiri Secondary School in Juba.

The First Vice President, Dr Riek Machar Teny, and his wife Angelina Teny, the Minister of Interior, have been placed under house arrest in Juba by security forces acting on the orders of President Salva Kiir Mayardit, according to opposition officials.
The arrests took place on Wednesday at 9:46 p.m after church leaders had met with the First Vice President and President Kiir to resolve the on-going tensions that erupted following clashes in Nasir, Upper Nile State between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the White Army militia on March 4, 2025.
Machar’s party issued a statement on Thursday, saying that his house in Amarat suburb was breached by security personnel from the National Security Services, Tiger Division, and the SSPDF, acting on the directives of President Kiir.

The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) on Thursday said the house arrest of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has jeopardized the revitalized peace deal, signed in 2018 to end years of conflict since 2013.
RJMEC said Machar’s arrest breached the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), calling on the parties to de-escalate tensions immediately.
“The gains of the past six-and-a-half years since the Revitalized Peace Agreement was signed,, are too numerous simply to be discarded,” it said in a statement issued in Juba.
RJMEC reminded the parties to the promises they made in the preamble of the R-ARCSS, in which they declared recommitment to peace and constitutionalism and not to repeat mistakes of the past.