Machar was arrested in March this year after the White Army, a community militia in Upper Nile State, overran an army barracks and killed South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) commander Major General Majur Dak, along with 27 soldiers, during a United Nations-led evacuation operation.
Authorities accused Machar of orchestrating the attack to incite rebellion. “Dr. Riek Machar was arrested because he is charged, accused of being in conflict with the law,” Michael Makuei, Minister of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services, said during a press briefing in Juba on March 28, 2025.
“Since the beginning of March 2025, and according to our intelligence and security reports, Dr. Riek Machar—First Vice President and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/A-IO—has been in contact with his people and his bases. As a result of these contacts, a lot of incidents occurred within the month of March,” Makuei added.
Manyang echoed this position in an interview with state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, insisting Machar’s arrest was based on criminal, not political, grounds.
“On the issue of Dr. Riek [First Vice President], I said that procedures are underway. It’s not a political detention, but a criminal one, and this is the normal procedure when someone is suspected of a crime,” Manyang said, as quoted by Eye Radio.
“It’s connected to the deaths of the soldiers in Nasir and fighting in other areas. This is how we explained the situation to them [the AU delegation],” he added.
His remarks, made during an engagement with an African Union delegation on a peace mission, prompted a swift response from Gordon Yien Gordon, Deputy Press Secretary in Machar’s office.
“The SPLM/SPLA-IO demands an apology from Kuol Manyang Juuk for his irresponsible and hateful statement towards the First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, and calls for the unconditional and total freedom of the peacemaker, Dr. Machar,” Yien said.
Machar’s detention has for months drawn criticism from civil society and the international community, with calls for his release to protect the fragile 2018 peace agreement from collapse.
Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, the SPLM-IO Acting Chairman, termed the detention “tribal and ethnically motivated”, dismissing Manyang’s remarks that the detention was not politically motivated.
