Biar warns of dubious elections, escalating foreign puppetry in South Sudan

JUBA – South Sudan’s exiled opposition leader, Peter Biar Ajak, has launched a scathing attack on President Salva Kiir’s leadership, accusing him of employing divisive political tactics, planning dubious elections, and allowing foreign entities to exert undue influence in South Sudan’s domestic affairs.

“The country is destroyed, impoverished, everything is corrupted. People reduced from proud people to beggars, people that are vulnerable,” Biar, the leader of the Revive South Sudan Party (RSSP), said in a blistering interview with Sudans Post on Sunday.

The prominent opposition leader, who had to flee the country amidst threats by the government security agency NSS in 2020, also questioned the growing influence of foreign entities in South Sudan and expressed deep concern about the unequal distribution of benefits to the country’s citizens.

“If you look in the country, the economy is taken over by foreigners. Your own country, even our own water from the Nile comes from the foreigners. You buy it from them. Anything, it’s foreigners that control it,” he said.

Biar asserted that South Sudan’s citizens are not benefiting from the country’s resources and decried President Kiir’s divisive rhetoric, which he said has stoked ethnic tensions and created a climate of mistrust and fear.

“You know he (President Kiir) then says that we, the Dinka people, are being attacked; our leadership, other tribes hate us. Why do other tribes hate us? We are friendly people; we have good neighbors in Jonglei with Lou Nuer and Gawar; we get along very well; they don’t hate us,” he said.

Biar attributed the rise of ethnic divisions to the deliberate manipulation of fear and animosity by both President Kiir and his rival and first deputy, Riek Machar. “So, they (Kiir and Machar) developed this image of hate in the country,” he said.

He predicted that Kiir would face significant challenges in the upcoming elections, citing his unpopularity in various regions due to his divisive policies. He asserted that Kiir would not receive any votes in Upper Nile, for example.

“So, Salva Kiir knows in Upper Nile, for example, he will not get any vote. He knows also in Equatoria, because of his divisive politics of different rule, and the way we basically marginalize the community and the voices from there, just using Wani Igga as a sham representative of the Equatoria region, he would not get a vote,” he said.

Biar, an economist, also highlighted the growing discontent within President Kiir’s own stronghold, the Bahr el Ghazal region, pointing to what he called an “open” rebellion in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and widespread resentment in Warrap and Lakes.

Ajak accused President Kiir of resorting to intimidation and violence to suppress his candidacy, alleging that he is preventing him from participating in the elections. “So, he’s not even allowing me to compete in the election,” he charged.

Biar expressed fears for his safety and urged President Kiir to publicly declare his support for his participation and ensure his security. “He has to come up on record and say that he’s okay with me coming and he will provide security, and I have a good reason to fear for that,” he challenged.