South Sudan lawmaker resigns over ‘atrocities,’ urges international intervention

JUBA – A South Sudanese lawmaker has resigned from both the Transitional Legislative Assembly and the Pan-African Parliament, citing grave human rights abuses, government militarization, and a systematic collapse of the peace process under President Salva Kiir’s administration.

Dei Tut Weang Khor, who represented Nasir County of Upper Nile State in the transitional national parliament and South Sudan in the Pan-African parliament, described his departure as “a deliberate moral stance” in protest of what he called “a government that bombs its people, criminalizes dissent, and turns the machinery of the state into a weapon of war against the innocent.”

In a strongly worded resignation letter, extended to Sudans Post on Tuesday, Khor said his decision to resign is “is not an act of retreat. I was not selected and nominated to be a silent witness to atrocity. I was not sent to these august chambers to lend legitimacy to a government that bombs its people.”

Khor’s resignation follows months of escalating violence in the country, particularly in Upper Nile and Jonglei states. He cited an airstrike on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-run hospital in Fangak on May 3, 2025, which killed a nine-month-old infant, describing it as “not just heartbreaking, it is criminal.”

“Civilians have become the primary targets. Markets have been torched. Crops destroyed. Entire villages were razed. Women have been raped, elders executed, and children disappeared,” the lawmaker stated, directly blaming the national army for transforming into an “occupying force.”

The former MP accused the Kiir-led government of orchestrating a campaign of terror and repressing political opposition. He condemned the detention of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and the replacement of SPLM-IO representatives as violations of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.

“The arbitrary detention of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar, an indispensable signatory to the 2018 R-ARCSS, marks a point of no return,” Khor said. “You cannot implement peace while jailing your peace partners.”

Khor further warned that the peace agreement has become “a grotesque performance of compliance,” accusing the government of deceiving international donors while abandoning its commitments at home.

“My conscience will not allow me to endorse this descent. To stay silent is to become complicit. To remain in office is to validate a lie,” he declared.

In his letter, Khor issued an urgent call to the United Nations Security Council, the African Union (AU), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to take decisive action.

He urged the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions and refer South Sudan’s situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), asserting that “the victims of Fangak, Nasir, and countless unnamed atrocities deserve justice.”

He also called on the AU to expedite the establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, which has faced years of delays, and on IGAD to convene an emergency summit to acknowledge the failure of the current peace agreement and initiate a new, inclusive process.

“Anything less is complicity in the charade,” Khor said.

In a particularly pointed section, he criticized the Government of Uganda for acting as “a belligerent party to the conflict,” accusing it of territorial profiteering under the guise of regional stabilization. He called for an international investigation into Uganda’s military role in South Sudan.

“I can no longer, in good conscience, be part of a system that perpetrates violence against its people and undermines the very foundations of democracy and human rights,” Khor concluded. “My resignation is a protest against tyranny and a call to action for all who believe in justice and the dignity of human life.”