Speaking on Radio Miraya’s Roundtable program on Saturday, Adwok said the replacement of Dr. Riek Machar, who has been under house arrest since March 26, undermines the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), to which Machar is a principal signatory.
“That one is a coup and, of course, it was engineered from outside… It is a violation because if you start disintegrating parties which are signatories to the agreement, it means you are violating the agreement,” said Adwok.
On April 9, a group of SPLM-IO members based in Juba named Stephen Par Kuol, the current Minister of Peacebuilding, as interim party chairperson, with Losuba Ludoru Wongo as deputy and Agok Makur Kur as secretary-general. Kuol claimed the move was temporary, pending Machar’s release, but the announcement was widely boycotted by top SPLM-IO officials loyal to Machar.
Critics, including Adwok, argue the move was orchestrated to weaken SPLM-IO’s leadership and fragment the opposition ahead of elections scheduled for December 2026.
“You cannot remove Riek, whose name is written in the agreement as First Vice President, and expect that the agreement will still be there,” Adwok emphasized.
The controversy comes after Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro, on April 27, unveiled plans to push forward the peace process without Machar’s faction. This includes recognizing the interim SPLM-IO leadership in Juba, replacing Machar allies in government commissions, and accelerating electoral reforms.
Adwok further linked the creation of the interim leadership to recent violence in Nasir and Ulang counties, warning that such political maneuvers risk renewed conflict in sensitive areas.
“The current situation is another violation of the agreement, and it is being used to make another extension of the transitional period,” he said.
However, Agok Makur Kur, interim SPLM-IO secretary-general, rejected accusations of a coup, framing the move as a constitutional step to maintain party functionality during Machar’s detention.
“We are not against Riek Machar. Even during the meeting where we declared the interim leadership, we called for our chairman’s release. So how can we call for his release and make a coup against him?” Agok said.
The SPLM-IO is a key signatory to the 2018 R-ARCSS, which brought together rival factions following a brutal civil war. Its destabilization poses a serious threat to the implementation of the peace deal and the scheduled end to South Sudan’s extended transitional period.
