Civil society leader slams South Sudan leaders over ‘war on citizens’ as fighting spreads

JUBA — A prominent South Sudanese civil society leader has issued a scathing indictment of the country’s political class, accusing them of waging “death on your own citizens” to secure power while warning that independence is becoming a “curse” for the country’s population.

Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), made the remarks in an audio statement to Sudans Post on Sunday night following a surge in military confrontations between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO).

The recent hostilities mark a dangerous escalation in a year-long deterioration of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement. Tensions spiked in March 2025 following heavy fighting in the opposition stronghold of Nasir, Upper Nile State.

The government subsequently arrested several high-ranking opposition commanders and politicians including the country’s First Vice President Riek Machar, placing him under house arrest in Juba and charging him with treason and murder in a trial that began in September.

Since Machar’s detention, conflict has rippled across the country, with significant clashes taking in most parts of the Greater Equatoria and Upper Nile regions. On Saturday and Sunday, the violence spread to Unity State, where the SSPDF launched major artillery strikes and ground assaults on multiple opposition positions including one near the Sudanese border.

“What type of leadership are you whether under the incumbent government or opposition that wage death on your own citizen and you claim that you are a political leader. Why should your political aspirations be expressed on the expenses of the lives of the citizens who are innocent who will never gain anything out of your political struggle where you are using military approach to either access power or retain power,” Yakani said.

“My message to citizen across the country, don’t support this violence, don’t support these wars, don’t be mobilized to be soldiers in order to fight specifically young people. These politicians know what they want. If they disagree, they killed us. If they agree, they loot us. You’ll be a victim of facilitating them to use violence for killing us because they disagree and it will be also you who will suffer when they agree, when they’re looting us,” he added.

Yakani accused the rival elites of being “profiteers of violence” who remain insulated from the misery they inflict. “The price of the pain of this strategy of military solutions does not affect you directly. It affects the common citizen,” he said. “Your political aspirations are expressed at the expense of the lives of innocent citizens who will never gain anything out of your political struggle.”

The activist warned that if the military waves continue through January, the country faces a high risk of “ethnically driven” atrocities. He noted that global humanitarian aid is being cut, leaving civilians trapped in conflict with no safety net.

“Let our independence not be a curse on our common citizen,” Yakani said, appealing for an immediate ceasefire and inclusive political dialogue. He warned that the 2026 elections—already postponed multiple times—will be compromised if leaders continue to use military force to “access power or retain power.”