South Sudanese authorities should uphold due process for the opposition leader and First Vice President Riek Machar, other opposition members, and affiliates facing charges, and ensure prompt, fair, and public trials that meet international standards, Human Rights Watch said today. If due process and fair trials are not guaranteed, the detainees should be released unconditionally.
On March 26, 2025, South Sudan's government placed Machar under house arrest. This followed arrests led by the National Security Service (NSS) and Military Intelligence of at least two dozen political and military members and affiliates of Machar's party, the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO). On September 11, the justice minister announced that 21 individuals-8 of whom were under arrest, including Machar-were charged with serious crimes including murder, treason, and crimes against humanity.
"For six months, the South Sudanese authorities have confined key opposition leader Riek Machar without any legal basis and held him and other opposition figures incommunicado," said Nyagoah Tut Pur, South Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Bringing serious charges after arbitrarily detaining and silencing opposition voices does not build confidence that detainees will receive impartial public hearings that fully respect their right to a fair trial."
On March 26, heavily armed security forces surrounded Machar's residence in South Sudan's capital, Juba, confined him to part of his residence, and held him incommunicado. Sources told Human Rights Watch that security forces in armored personnel carriers have been guarding all roads leading to Machar's residence.
Machar's house arrest followed weeks of violence between armed youth known as the White Army and government forces in Nasir, Upper Nile state, a Machar stronghold. On March 4, the White Army attacked a government military base and Nasir town and on March 7, armed men attacked a United Nations helicopter, killing a crew member, which the UN said may constitute a war crime.
At a March 28 news conference, the information minister said that Machar was arrested for "encouraging his forces to rebel" and that the restrictions were "pending investigations."
Fighting between government forces and its allied militias and the White Army, SPLA-IO, and other armed groups has continued to escalate, with the government bombarding populated areas, which Human Rights Watch found may amount to war crimes.
Since Machar's detention, the government has denied requests for access to Machar from embassies and the African Union, which have called for his immediate and unconditional release. On September 11, the justice minister warned international actors that judicial proceedings could not be subject to "policy or diplomatic debate."
On June 8, media reported that security service agents searched Machar's residence and confiscated the phones, laptop, and internet modem of Machar's wife, Interior Minister Angelina Teny, effectively cutting her off from external communications, including her ministerial duties. Teny had not left the residence since Machar's house arrest. Authorities should immediately return Teny's devices, allow her unfettered access to Machar, and ensure her safe and free movement, Human Rights Watch said.
Credible sources said that at least three members of SPLA-IO-Puot Kang Chol, the petroleum minister; Camilo Gatmai Kel, Machar's office manager; and Mam Pal Dhuor, an SPLA-IO affiliate-were held incommunicado at the Blue House, the security service headquarters, since their arrest in early March, until the charges were announced. The sources also say that at least two detainees, Chol and Gatmai, were held in solitary confinement for at least three months.
Gatwech Lam Puoch, an SPLA-IO member of parliament for Nasir county, Upper Nile state, was arrested near his home and detained at the Blue House since March 12 without access to family or lawyers until September 11 and 13 respectively. He had called for the suspension of government military deployment to Nasir and Ulang until local communities were consulted. In August, parliament lifted Puoch's immunity at the request of the then-justice minister, apparently to clear the way for him to stand trial.
Military Intelligence also continues to detain the SPLA-IO chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, two opposition officials told Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented abusive detention practices by both the NSS and Military Intelligence, including torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance.
On September 11, the justice minister announced the "conclusion of investigations into the Nasir incident March 3-7" and that 83 suspects were interrogated, 21 were indicted, 8 were under arrest and charged, 76 were discharged for lack of evidence, and 13 remained at large. Those charged include Machar, Chol, Duop Lam, Dhuor, Puoch, Gatmai, Mading Riek Yak, and Dominic Gatgok Riak. They are charged with murder, treason, conspiracy and common intention, destruction of public property and military assets, terrorism financing, and crimes against humanity. President Salva Kiir simultaneously suspended Machar as first vice president and Chol as petroleum minister.
Authorities should end the incommunicado detentions of other SPLA-IO members and affiliates, including Deputy Governor Isaiah Akhol and Animal Resources Minister Samuel Gai Magok, whom the security service arrested in March in Lakes state after they criticized aerial bombardments in Upper Nile; Marko Peter Achor, security adviser for Western Bar El Ghazal state, and James Ernest Makuei, Jur River county commissioner, whom security services transferred from their facility in Wau to the Blue House in early March.
Authorities should also grant independent domestic and international monitors access to all detainees to assess their condition and treatment, and the courts should urgently review the detentions and treatment of the detainees, including how investigations were conducted, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented how charges of crimes against the state have been used to repress dissent and how prosecutions and trials of those facing such charges are marred by human rights abuses and political interference.
The serious charges brought against Machar and his affiliates come at a time when the South Sudanese government is resisting establishing the African Union Hybrid Court, which would investigate and prosecute all those responsible for serious crimes since 2013, including in the context of violence in 2025. This demonstrates a selective justice approach that targets political rivals rather than those most responsible for serious abuses from all sides, Human Rights Watch said.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union Peace and Security Council, and the UN Security Council should press South Sudan to accord Machar and other detainees full due process rights, including effective and confidential access to their lawyers and access to their assets to enable their defense. They should ensure fair trials accessible to the public, media, and trial monitors in line with international standards or immediately and unconditionally release the detainees.
"The unraveling of South Sudan's peace deal has been accompanied by serious rights abuses and the erosion of the rule of law," Pur said. "South Sudan's neighbors and other concerned governments should ensure courts are not weaponized against rivals and use their leverage to press for tangible progress that protects rights."
