South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO) office in Warrap State, has been shut down following recent defection of party members to the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party under President Salva Kiir.
Kuech Deng Mayar, Chairperson of SPLM-IO in Warrap State, said the entire members of the party had denounced the leadership of their chairman Riek Machar.
“The entire membership has officially denounced and declared a total closure of the SPLM-IO office with effect from today, 26 April 2025,” Deng told journalists on Saturday.
Deng, who doubles as speaker of the Warrap Legislative Assembly, made this declaration a week after his release from detention.
He was arrested alongside other senior members of SPLM-IO on 15 April 2025 in a crackdown on the opposition party.
Deng cited a ‘power struggle’ within the main opposition group.
“Power struggle within SPLM-IO has created divisions, etched and made the party lose a direction. For example, the emergence of the new leadership under Honorable Ambassador Stephen Par Kuol and other groups that are operating in parallel,” he said.
Par, leads an interim leadership faction of the opposition party which has been dismissed as not legitimate by Machar’s loyalists, who claim that it is working with the SPLM to replace Machar.
Deng defected with 2,338 SPLM-IO members after the top leadership abandoned the party and resorted to operating online while in exile.
“This serves to inform the general public that the entire membership, which is 2,338 members of the SPLM-IO in Warrap State, has decided to officially declare total closure of the SPLM-IO office from the state, county, farms, and boomer sectarian with immediate effect,” he said.
The ongoing military clashes and high-level arrests of key SPLM-IO figures, including house arrest leader of Machar, threatens to derail the fragile gains, according to experts.
Kiir’s recent political maneuvering, including a cabinet reshuffle that eliminated key opposition figures, has been perceived as an aggressive action in an already tense situation.
On 9 April 2025, Stephen Par Kuol deposed Dr. Riek Machar Teny, a key figure in the 2018 peace deal.
The crisis comes at a critical juncture as the transitional government struggles to implement key provisions of the peace agreement, including the integration of rival forces into a unified national army, the adoption of a new constitution ahead of planned elections in December 2026.
