The Brewing Civil War within Dr Riek Machar’s Moribund SPLM-IO
Riek Machar on trial
By PaanLuel Wël, Juba, South Sudan
- The Dueling Press Releases from Rival Camps of the SPLM-IO.
There is an internal civil war now brewing within Dr. Riek Machar’s SPLM-IO. On one side is Hon. Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, the Deputy and Acting Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM-IO, who has suspended Interim Secretary General Regina Joseph Kaba and seven other senior officials, accusing them of conspiracy, sabotage and an attempted internal coup.
On the other side is Hon. Regina Joseph Kaba, acting in the name of members of the SPLM-IO Political Bureau, who has rejected Hon. Oyet’s authority, suspended him from his substantive and acting positions, appointed herself Interim Deputy Chairperson and ordered all political, administrative, financial and military structures not to obey him.
In short, Hon. Oyet has fired Hon. Regina, and Hon. Regina has fired Hon. Oyet. Both claim constitutional authority from SPLM-IO constitution, loyalty to Dr. Riek Machar, accuse the other of creating parallel structures. Yet both are now operating as parallel authorities within the same moribund SPLM-IO.
- We have seen this movie before.
The 1991 Nasir Declaration was launched by Dr. Riek Machar, Dr. Lam Akol and CDR Gordon Kong Chuol as a revolt against what they described as Dr. John Garang’s authoritarian leadership. It promised democracy, accountability and self-determination, but the Nasir faction soon began devouring itself.
Dr Lam Akol broke away and retained the SPLM/A-United name for his own faction. Hon. John Luk Jok, another senior political figure in the Nasir movement, was arrested at Waat on Dr Riek Machar’s orders. He later broke away and returned to mother SPLM/SPLA with CDR William Nyuon under Lafon Declaration.
The Nasir Faction created to oppose concentrated power could not agree on how power within itself should be shared. The same pattern returned with the SPLM-IO that emerged from the December 2013 crisis.
When the July 2016 fighting forced Dr Riek Machar out of Juba, Hon Taban Deng Gai and his allies argued that the SPLM-IO and the peace agreement required a leader who was physically present in the capital. Hon Taban replaced Dr Riek Machar as First Vice President and established the SPLM-IO Juba faction, which eventually integrated into the ruling SPLM.
Dr Riek Machar’s loyalists called it a government-engineered coup, but Hon Taban’s supporters called it institutional necessity. Whatever name one prefers, the mighty 2013 SPLM-IO became two weaklings.
Then came Hon Stephen Par Kuol. Following Dr Riek Machar’s detention in March 2025, a Juba-based group declared Hon Stephen Par Kuol Interim Chairman. Senior Dr Riek Machar loyalists boycotted the meeting, while the armed wing rejected Hon Stephen Par’s authority. What began as another “temporary” leadership arrangement eventually became a permanent split. In June 2026, Hon Stephen Par’s faction was registered separately as the “IO Party” after dropping the SPLM-IO name.
Now, barely after surviving the Hon Stephen Par Kuol split, the remaining Dr Riek Machar-loyalist camp is splitting again, this time between Hon Oyet Pierino and Hon Regina Kaba. The central question has remained the same from Hon Taban Deng to Hon Stephen Par and now to Hon Regina Kaba: who exercises authority when Dr. Riek Machar is physically absent, detained or politically incapacitated?
Hon Oyet Pierino says authority passes to him as Deputy and Acting Chairman but Hon Regina Kaba says authority remains collectively with the Political Bureau. Hon Oyet invokes Articles 28 and 29 while Hon Regina invokes Articles 22 and 23. Hon Oyet calls the Political Bureau meeting a coup while Hon Regina calls Oyet’s leadership unconstitutional. The SPLM-IO Constitution has become both shield and spear.
- Hon Oyet Pierino’s Case: Continuity Through the Acting Chairman
Hon. Oyet’s statement presents the Political Bureau meeting as an attempted internal coup. He accuses some Political Bureau members residing outside South Sudan of holding illegal meetings, trying to strip the Acting Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of powers vested under Articles 28 and 29, creating parallel structures and lines of communication, and attempting to separate the political and military wings of the Movement.
His account traces the conflict to the leadership vacuum created after Machar’s detention. According to Hon Oyet, only a small number of Political Bureau members escaped from Juba while others remained detained, confined or otherwise restricted. The surviving leadership then divided over a fundamental strategic question of whether the SPLM/A-IO should fight or surrender to Juba. In Hon Oyet’s formulation, those challenging his authority are not just weakening resistance but also advancing the government’s wider plan to paralyse and ultimately defeat the SPLM-IO.
Acting under Articles 29.1.3 and 28.1, together with earlier conference and Political Bureau resolutions, Hon Oyet announces what he calls “security measures.” He suspends Regina Joseph Kaba and seven other senior officials: Gabriel Gabriel Deng, Pal Mai Deng, Matata Frank Elikana, Paul Baba Ezbon, Reath Muoch Tang, Ambassador James Oryem and Ambassador Jordan Manpiny. He also warns Hon. Angelina Teny over alleged secret negotiations involving figures connected to President Salva Kiir’s family.
The breadth of these measures reveals the true scope of the dispute. Hon Oyet is not just disciplining insubordinating individuals but attempting to dismantle an alternative political and administrative network before it becomes a fully organised rival faction.
- Regina Kaba’s Case: Collective Authority Through the Political Bureau
Hon Regina Kaba’s first statement rejects Oyet’s suspensions as unconstitutional and non-binding, arguing that he remains the substantive Deputy Chairman and exercises only an acting role as Chairman. On this interpretation, an acting office does not give him the power to suspend Political Bureau members or other senior officials without the consent or approval of the Political Bureau.
The statement claims that the Political Bureau met on 27 August 2026, reaffirmed the principle of collective leadership and stripped Oyet of any asserted power to suspend, dismiss or appoint officials unilaterally. It accuses him of making unilateral decisions that caused deaths, divisions and friction within the Movement.
A second statement goes much further. Invoking Articles 22 and 23, it identifies the Political Bureau as the highest executive political organ of the Movement, suspends Hon Oyet from his substantive position as Deputy Chairman as well as his acting positions as Chairman and Commander-in-Chief, and authorises Hon Regina Kaba to serve as Interim Deputy Chairperson.
The second statement then directs every political, administrative, military, financial and organisational structure not to recognise or implement any order issued by Hon Oyet. All civil and military structures, including overseas chapters, are instructed to report through Hon Regina and to reject parallel structures.
- Conclusion: The birth certificates of the next SPLM-IO factions.
This is the point at which an internal disagreement becomes an internal civil war. Hon Oyet suspends Hon Regina and her allies; Hon Regina, acting in the name of the Political Bureau, suspends Hon Oyet. Each side declares the other unconstitutional. Each claims to be defending the SPLM-IO from fragmentation while establishing the very parallel authority it accuses the other of creating.
The most striking feature of the confrontation is that neither camp openly claims to be overthrowing Dr. Riek Machar. Both continue to invoke his leadership and present themselves as the genuine custodians of his Movement. The struggle is therefore not formally against Machar; it is a struggle over who may exercise power beneath him, speak for him and potentially inherit the political machinery built around him.
Nonetheless, if history is any guide, the SPLM-IO may soon have an Oyet faction and a Regina–Political Bureau faction, with both claiming Dr. Riek Machar as Chairman. The dueling press releases of 31 August may therefore be remembered not as ordinary administrative letters, but as the birth certificates of the next SPLM-IO factions. The split becomes complete when members stop asking what the Constitution says and begin asking which camp they belong to.
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