South Sudan stands at the edge of history, and President Salva Kiir is dragging it into darkness. The nation is witnessing a farce disguised as justice: Dr. Riek Machar’s trial is nothing but reckless political theater. It is the product of a decade-long Kiir vendetta, born of tribal animosity and designed to crush opposition. Tomorrow, September 22, 2025, the suspended First Vice President, Machar, will face charges including murder, treason, crimes against humanity, and financing terrorism. On paper, it is accountability. In reality, it is the culmination of a vindictive campaign by Kiir and the notorious Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) to sideline, discredit, or even physically eliminate Machar from South Sudanese politics. This trial is not justice; it is a political witch hunt cloaked in the guise of law.
Since late 2012, a familiar pattern has emerged in the targeting of Machar. Dr. Machar has been relentlessly targeted by Kiir and his political allies. Their primary goal is clear—to remove him as a political rival and consolidate power through fear and intimidation. In July 2016, Kiir replaced Machar with Taban Deng Gai, sparking deadly clashes that deepened the nation’s wounds. Today, he is employing the same tactic to divide leaders within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO). On April 9, 2025, Stephen Par Kuol declared in Juba that he is the legitimate leader of the SPLM/A-IO. He stated that he is ready to fully implement the September 2018 revitalized peace agreement with Kiir—even though his support in movement-controlled areas is minimal. The timing of Machar’s suspension, combined with politically connected appointments within the Ministry of Justice, makes one thing clear: the government is more interested in controlling the narrative than pursuing impartial justice.
Under President Kiir, South Sudan is no longer a nation—it is a family cartel posing as a government. The script was effectively written long before charges against Dr. Machar and other opposition leaders were announced. In the shadows, Kiir and his son-in-law, Benjamin Bol Mel, purged key officials from the Ministry of Justice, clearing the path for a political hit job disguised as a legal process. The current Minister of Justice? A cousin of Benjamin Bol. The newly appointed Counsel General? Benjamin’s own wife, installed just a few days before the indictment. This is not governance—it is a mafia-like regime where blood ties override the constitution and the law bends to serve Kiir’s paranoid obsession with power.
President Kiir has repeatedly shown that he is incapable of delivering peace to South Sudan. He does not fear war, poverty, or the suffering of his people; what he truly fears is reform. His paranoia is chronic. His obsession with power is pathological. Instead of statesmanship, he clings to looting, tyranny, and divisive politics, dragging the nation deeper into chaos.
South Sudan trembles under the shadow of a man whose hands are soaked in the blood of his own people and whose pockets are lined with the nation’s stolen wealth. This is Salva Kiir—the architect of death and debt—who borrowed $656 million from Afreximbank in 2019 and 2020, and $1 billion from Qatar National Bank and Kenya’s CfC Stanbic Bank between 2012 and 2015, only for the money to vanish into the pockets of a few greedy cronies while the country sank deeper into debt. These figures represent only a fraction of the staggering sums siphoned by Kiir’s regime—over a decade of debt, graft, and misappropriation far exceed what is listed here, underscoring the scale of economic ruin inflicted on South Sudan. No reasonable foreign investor should commit capital to South Sudan, where funds are routinely siphoned from legitimate development projects and funneled into the hands of a regime infamous for its bloody record and entrenched corruption. To invest under such conditions is not only fiscally reckless but also morally indefensible—indeed, only a complicit investor devoid of conscience would deliberately empower the Kiir-JCE regime.
This looting and betrayal of the nation’s wealth is inseparable from his tyrannical rule. He governs not as a president but as a mafia don, whose paranoia and lust for power make reform a threat and dissent a death sentence. Every hotel bill unpaid, every atrocity ignored, every life lost in the chaos of his December 2013 fabricated coup is a monument to his greed. And yet, some still call him a leader, blind to the kingdom of suffering and corruption he has built—a kingdom where justice is a weapon against his enemies and survival is a daily gamble for the people.
On December 16, 2013, less than a day after the civil war erupted, Kiir’s tribal militias and security forces went door-to-door in Juba, slaughtering innocent Nuer men, women, and children, while he dismissed Machar as a “prophet of doom.” History has proven whose prophecy was accurate. Today, it is clear that Kiir himself is a prophet of destruction, ruling over a kingdom built on theft, terror, and relentless atrocities. Every policy, every decree, every act of violence has left South Sudan shattered and fractured—and the world can no longer ignore the devastation he has unleashed.
Every South Sudanese who values truth knows that the charges against Dr. Machar and other opposition figures are nothing but fabrications. They are instruments of suppression, crafted not to serve justice but to ensure the survival of a regime that thrives on silencing dissent.
The charges themselves are deeply questionable. The March 2025 clashes in Nasir County, which underpin many of these allegations, were not sparked by Machar but by local communities protesting long-term abuses by government troops—forces notorious for terrorizing civilians, committing sexual assaults, and destroying livelihoods. Government militias, allied forces, and even Ugandan airstrikes escalated the violence. To hold Machar personally responsible overlooks the historical context and exposes a pattern of selective accountability designed to punish him while shielding state-sponsored actors.
Allegations that Machar financed terrorism and directed violence in Nasir collapse under scrutiny. Evidence instead points to government actors orchestrating preemptive attacks, leveraging militias, and even employing foreign military support to maintain control. This trial is therefore not about justice—it is a legal façade designed to legitimize a long-standing political vendetta. It is a spectacle, a stage for scapegoating. Kiir seeks to distract the world from his failures by criminalizing those who dare to challenge him. But even a trial conducted in absentia cannot bury the truth. South Sudanese are not blind, and history will not absolve tyranny disguised as justice.
South Sudan’s judiciary now faces a defining test: it can either uphold genuine justice or become a tool of political persecution. The 2018 peace agreement, which envisioned unified forces to maintain security, has already been undermined. Targeting Machar while ignoring the regime’s culpability not only risks fracturing the political landscape, eroding public trust, and entrenching a culture of impunity, but also serves as a justification for its ongoing atrocities and a deliberate sabotage of South Sudan’s future and prospects for progress.
As the world watches, one question looms: will this trial deliver justice, or will it rewrite history to shield those responsible for immense suffering? While Machar faces allegations of murder, treason, and crimes against humanity, the record points instead to more than a decade of unpunished atrocities orchestrated by Kiir and his allies. In the end, history may judge this trial not by its verdict but by its fairness—or its absence.
This is not just a legal proceeding—it is the climax of a calculated, politically driven campaign more than a decade in the making. The world must recognize it for what it is: a witch hunt designed to silence South Sudan’s most prominent opposition figure. The stakes could not be higher. The outcome—and the integrity of the judicial process—will not only decide Machar’s fate but will also define the nation’s future and the credibility of its institutions for generations to come.
The writer, Duop Chak Wuol, is an analyst, critical writer, and former editor-in-chief of the South Sudan News Agency. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and focuses on geopolitics, security, and social issues in South Sudan and the broader East African region. His work has appeared in leading regional and international outlets, including AllAfrica, Radio Tamazuj, The Independent (Uganda), The Arab Weekly, The Standard (Kenya), The Chronicle (Ghana), Addis Standard (Ethiopia), and Sudan Tribune. In August 2017, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation highlighted his article on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s role in Ethiopia’s economic transformation. He currently focuses on emerging security dynamics, including tensions over the Nile waters and foreign involvement in conflicts in South Sudan and Sudan. He can be reached at duop282@gmail.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.