South Sudan’s main opposition group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), is facing a deepening leadership crisis after its acting chairman suspended several senior party officials.
Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, the SPLM-IO deputy chairman who has been serving as acting chairman since the detention of party leader Dr. Riek Machar, defended his decision to suspend senior officials as a disciplinary measure, saying it is in line with the party’s constitution and internal rules.
“The suspension is administrative procedure. Administrative procedure is also disciplinary in nature,” Oyet told Radio Tamazuj in an interview on Tuesday.
Oyet on Monday suspended Interim Secretary-General Regina Joseph Kaba and seven other senior officials, accusing them of conduct aimed at undermining the party’s constitutional principles and destabilising its leadership.
Those suspended include Gabriel Gabriel Deng, chairperson of the National Committee for Peace and Reconciliation; Pai Mai Deng, chairperson of the National Committee for Information; Matata Frank Elikana, chairperson of the National Committee for Governance Affairs; and Paul Baba Ezbon, chairperson of the National Committee for Transport Systems.
The others are Reath Muoch Tang, deputy chairperson of the National Committee for Foreign Affairs; Ambassador James Dyeem, the SPLM-IO representative to Kenya; and Ambassador Jordan Manpiny, the SPLM-IO representative to Ethiopia.
Kaba rejected the move and issued a counter-order the same day suspending Oyet from his positions as deputy chairman and acting chairman.
The competing orders have exposed a widening leadership rift within the SPLM-IO and raised questions over who has authority over the party’s political and military structures.
Oyet said the officials he suspended remain members of the SPLM-IO but would face investigations.
“They are suspended from their positions. They are not yet suspended from the membership of the party,” he said.
He accused some members of the party’s Political Bureau, particularly those outside South Sudan, of attempting to interfere with the party’s constitutional principles.
“What happened, we had a section of the members of Political Bureau, basically those who are outside Juba, outside South Sudan, who are trying to tamper with the constitutional principles of the party, including planning to destabilize the party. That’s why such suspension came out,” Oyet said.
He did not provide details of the alleged plans to destabilise the party.
Oyet said any actions taken by the suspended officials would be considered as part of disciplinary proceedings.
“Anything they do from now onwards will be added into the files of their investigation,” he said.
He also sought to reassure SPLM-IO supporters, saying the dispute is part of normal internal administrative procedures.
“I know SPLM-IO is very big constituency in the Republic of South Sudan. Our support base is country-wide. Our membership and supporters are also country-wide. They should remain calm,” he said.
“These are normal administrative processes that are going on within the party. It is meant to cleanse the party to ensure that nobody is above the law.”
Rival claims to authority
Kaba’s counter-order presented a fundamentally different account of the dispute.
In a statement issued on Monday, she said the SPLM-IO Political Bureau is the party’s highest executive political organ and had reaffirmed the principle of collective leadership at a meeting on Aug. 27.
The Political Bureau had directed Oyet to observe the party’s constitution when exercising his authority as acting chairman, she said.
Kaba accused Oyet of gross misconduct, refusing to work collectively with political and military leaders, defying Political Bureau orders and taking unilateral decisions that had caused “deaths, division, and friction” within the movement.
Her statement ordered Oyet to immediately stop exercising or claiming authority on behalf of the SPLM-IO.
It also directed the party’s political, military, financial and administrative structures not to recognise directives or appointments issued by Oyet in his capacity as deputy chairman and acting chairman.
Kaba’s statement said she had been authorised to serve as interim deputy chairperson following Oyet’s suspension.
The rival orders leave the SPLM-IO with competing centres of authority, with both sides invoking the party’s constitution and internal procedures to justify their actions.
A movement already divided
The latest dispute comes after years of turmoil within the SPLM-IO, one of the principal signatories to the 2018 peace agreement that created South Sudan’s transitional unity government in 2020.
Machar, the group’s leader and South Sudan’s first vice president under the peace deal, was detained in March 2025 and is being tried in Juba over allegations linked to fighting in Nasir. Machar has denied wrongdoing.
His detention deepened divisions within the SPLM-IO.
A faction based in Juba is led by Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol, while another faction operating largely from outside the country has been led in an acting capacity by Oyet.
The Juba-based faction has backed the government’s election timetable and has been recognised by President Salva Kiir’s administration as a partner in implementing the 2018 peace agreement.
The Oyet-led faction, meanwhile, has retained influence among sections of the opposition movement and its military wing.
The competing suspensions could further fragment the SPLM-IO, although it remains unclear how the dispute will affect its political and military structures on the ground.
Oyet seeks to portray his faction as committed to maintaining the movement’s institutional integrity.
“We are government in the waiting. We have all the moral obligation to conduct our business according to the law and according to the highest standards possible,” he said.
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