South Sudan vice-president faces murder, treason and other criminal charges

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar speaks to the media about the situation in South Sudan following a peace agreement the week before with the government, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, Aug. 31, 2015. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar faces charges of treason and other serious crimes, local justice authorities said Thursday, as fears grow that the east African country could be edging toward a return to civil war.

Machar has been under house arrest since March after the transitional government he is a part of accused him of subversive activities against President Salva Kiir, who said on Thursday that he was suspending Machar as his deputy because of the criminal allegations.

Pro-government troops have been fighting militias and other armed groups that they say are loyal to Machar, who has served as his country’s No. 2 under the terms of a delicate peace deal signed in 2018.

That agreement has not been fully implemented, with presidential elections repeatedly postponed.

In addition to treason, Machar and seven others face charges of murder, conspiracy, terrorism, destruction of public property and military assets and crimes against humanity.

The charges stem from a violent incident in March when a militia known as the White Army overran a garrison of government troops, killing its commanding officer and others. The justice ministry said in a statement Thursday that the attack in Nasir, Upper Nile state was influenced by Machar and others via ”coordinated military and political structures."

Bringing criminal charges against Machar is likely to further destabilize South Sudan, whose government faces pressure from regional leaders to reach a political agreement that prevents a return to full-blown war.

It was not immediately clear when Machar would be presented in a courtroom. His precise whereabouts in South Sudan are unknown, and his political supporters have long called for his freedom.

The statement from the justice ministry Thursday said Machar and his co-accused “have been informed of the charges against them and their constitutional rights.”

But a spokesman for Machar, Puok Both Baluang, said the charges “constitute a political witch hunt” and that the justice system lacks independence and can be directed politically.

Edmund Yakani, a prominent civic leader in South Sudan, warned that the suspects should be presented in a competent court and not what he described as “a kangaroo court of law.” He said he hopes citizens will be able to attend court proceedings.

Both Kiir and Machar are historical leaders of the rebel movement — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, or SPLM — that secured South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011.

But they are from rival ethnic groups: Kiir is from the Dinka, the largest, and Machar is from the Nuer, the second-largest.

Their military rivalry began in the 1990s, when Machar led a breakaway unit which drew accusations that he had betrayed the SPLM. Amid the split, forces loyal to Machar carried out a massacre in the town of Bor that targeted the Dinka, angering rebel commander Kiir and John Garang, the movement’s now-deceased political figurehead.

Fighting among southerners briefly undermined their struggle for independence, but it also sowed lifelong distrust between Kiir and Machar.

Analysts say Machar and Kiir don’t see eye to eye even as they work together, and their feud has grown over the years as Machar waits his turn to become president and Kiir hangs on to the presidency.

In 2013, citing a coup plot, Kiir fired Machar as his deputy. Later that year violence erupted in Juba, the capital, as government soldiers loyal to Kiir fought those devoted to Machar in the start of a civil war that killed an estimated 400,000 people.

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Deng Machol, The Associated Press

Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza contributed from Kampala, Uganda.