On 7 May 2025, I rang and reached out to a longtime colleague of mine, and we spoke via Messenger on the prevailing political and security situations in South Sudan. Our chat and conversation were triggered by the SSPDF’s aerial bombardment of a village in Unity State’s Mayom County.
At some points, we reminded ourselves of the wise words uttered by Dr. John Garang de Mabior, who in 2005 stated that, “…with this agreement, there will be no bombs falling from the sky on innocent children and women. Instead of the cries of children and the wailing of women and the pain of the last 21 years of war, peace will bless us once more with hearing the happy giggling of children and the enchanting ululation of women who are excited in happiness for one reason or another.”
More often than not, it surprises everybody in the country and the entire East African region why the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS) does not stop the falling of bombs and bullets on innocent children and women.
In the wake of the brutal killing of veteran General David Majur Dak and subsequent recapture of Nasir Town from the Jikany White Army (JWA), the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) came out with the 7-page statement titled “Strategic response of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity to the Nasir incident and Reinvigoration of the Revitalized Agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCISS).” As we have seen and heard, this document received an avalanche of criticism from South Sudanese across the political divide because it generalizes and categorizes the sixteen counties inhabited by the Nuer as “friendly” and “hostile.”
The basis for criticizing and condemning the absurd categorization was due to its illegal content. In law, the act of stereotyping a tribe to unleash violent attacks on them is a crime of genocide in International Law and as per the Rome Statute.
Objectively, when you look at and relate the government’s strategy alongside the indiscriminate aerial bombings in Mayom, Fangak, Akobo, Longechuk, and Nasir counties, the government is guilty ab initio. This unlawful plot and its accompanying activities amount to what we call Mens rea and actus reus in criminal law. In other words, the so-called strategic response and the act of bombing bring to the fore the essential elements of crime, which are always required for conviction at a trial.
The buck stops with the ministers
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a government as a system designed to control a state. Normally, a system accommodates many people, particularly experts, to work and serve the country and its people, both equally and equitably, as stipulated in the supreme law of the land. Usually, the oaths of office taken by government officials are unique, and they are administered differently. This speaks volumes. The fact that governmental officials take different oaths on different dates communicates a message that they should carry their crosses separately because nobody is above the law.
It is on this account that the protest against the criminal labeling of the Nuer was directed at Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro and Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth, respectively. Evidently, on 24 April 2025, the latter invited both local and international media for a conference where the former publicly read out the statement to the media.
On 29 April 2025, the Nuer Community Peace Forum issued a statement in which they demanded immediate action against Minister Lomuro. For Instance, they demanded his dismissal from the cabinet because the public lost confidence in him. However, this public demand attracted mixed reactions on social media, with some people and pundits arguing that pointing fingers at the two ministers was an act of cowardice by the Nuer leaders. Instead, they insisted that the statement and condemnation should have been directed to the entire government and President Salva Kiir directly. I, however, disagree with and dismiss this argument as nothing but baseless. I think that if the Nuer SPLM Party legislators and the Nuer Community leadership directed their protest to the government and President Kiir in person, they would be lacking sufficient facts to prove their case now and in the future. Their three-page document would be a blanket statement devoid of facts known to all and sundry.
The bombing of Mayom County is a violation of the anti-Nuer strategy
In the seven-page document presented by Dr. Lomuro, Mayom County falls under the friendly counties which included Maiwut, Mayiendit, Koch, Longechuk, Leer and Guit. Going by this labeling, the people of Mayom, commonly known as the Bul Nuer, were not supposed to be bombed. Surprisingly, on 7 May 2025, the SSPDF bombed Kueryiek Payam in Mayom County in total violation of the so-called strategic response.
Gene Sharp once opined: “’Dictatorships are never as strong as they think they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.” The bombing in Kueryiek left about six innocent people dead and scores injured, and properties destroyed. Consequently, the government must apologize and accept to offer what we call ‘blood compensation’ for these innocent people killed in cold blood.
Finally, this devilish act of bombing innocent children, women, and the elderly must stop forthwith, not just in Mayom County, but in all the other targeted counties, including Nasir and its environs. The government must not remain misinformed and misguided that it will fix and finish this conflict through violence and suppression of the Nuer Community. The problem that we are grappling with is a political problem that can be resolved at the table of the stalled High-Level Mediation for South Sudan, alias Tumaini Peace Initiative, which is being mediated by the Government of Kenya in Nairobi.
The writer is the National Chairperson for Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the South Sudan People’s Movement (SSPM) and can be reached via eligodakb@yahoo.com.
The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.