23/05/2026
Update: At least five prominent allies of President Salva Kiir have been accused of plotting the March 2025 Nasir attacks, which led to the killing of civilians and provoked SPLA-IO-affiliated community militia to kill members of the South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF) and overrun the military garrison.
Detained Minister of Petroleum Puot Kang Chol told the 80th session of the court proceedings that Former Vice President Dr Benjamin Bol Mel, Cabinet Minister Martin Elia Lomuro, Defence Minister Gen. Chol Thon Balok, Justice Minister Michael Makuei Lueth, and former Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Paul Ngang Majok were directly responsible for the deployment of the non-unified forces, bombardment of civilian areas, and orchestration of the R-ARCSS abrogation.
βThese individuals pushed for deployment of non-unified forces to Nasir instead of deployment of Necessary Unified Forces as agreed by the Joint Defence Board (JDB). They pushed for bombardment of civiliansβ areas in Nyirol County of Jonglei State and Nasir and Ulang counties of Upper Nile State. This was in February 2025,β he said.
βThey made inflammatory statements against the R-ARCSS, the SPLM/A-IO, those of us that are arrested, and the Nuer community at large when Dr Martin Elias and Michael Makuei went on air and categorised Nuer as a hostile community. βThis statement alone justified the reasons as to why the 21 of us or the 8 accused sitting before you are all from the Nuer community when both the membership and leadership of SPLM/A-IO are made up of all South Sudanese,β he added.
