First Deputy Speaker of the National Parliament Oyet Nathaniel. (Photo: Courtesy).

(Eye Radio) – SPLM-IO Deputy Chairman Oyet Nathaniel has condemned the appointment of an interim leadership of the party in Juba and called on guarantors and observers of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement to safeguard the pact from abrogation.

Oyet’s remarks came hours after the SPLM-IO group met at a Juba hotel and proclaimed Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol as interim leader, deputized by Federal Affairs Minister Losuba Wango, with MP Agok Makur as secretary general.

The faction, which reaffirmed recommitment to the 2018 revitalized peace agreement and urged ceasefire, said the interim leadership shall stay in place until First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar is freed from house arrest.

Some key figures of the party, including interior minister Angelina Teny, mining minister Martin Abucha, former health minister Yolanda Awel and MP Gai Mayen Luk, were not present in the meeting.

The SPLM-IO faction also declared that it has severed ties with Oyet, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament – and would henceforth treat him as former deputy chairman of the party.

But all members of the SPLM-IO faction assuming the party’s interim leadership were already suspended on April 6 by Oyet who accused them of plotting to replace Machar.

In a press statement on April 10, Hon. Oyet said the SPLM-IO condemns any attempt to violate the agreement, acceding that it is fully committed in its implementation.

He called on the region and international community to intervene.

“We call upon IGAD partners’ forum, we call upon all the guarantors as aforementioned to safeguard the agreement from being abrogated. The gathering failing to meet the requirements of the provisions of the basic document of the SPLM-IO was not only illegal, but also null and void,” he said.

“This meeting is wrongly constituted and ill-fated, and aimed to abrogate the agreement is null and void, and we call other partners and parties to the agreement not to accept and endorse this illegal this treachery.”

South Sudan has experienced a deteriorating security and political situation since February 2025 – following the outbreak of violence in Upper Nile, Western Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal, and cantonment sites in Central Equatoria.

The United Nations warns that the country is on the brink of another civil war.

Regional leaders including Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Kenyan Envoy Raila Odinga and a delegation of African Union Pane of the Wise, have recently visited Juba to engage parties on de-escalation and implementing the 2018 peace deal.