SPLM-IO Director of Communication Pal Mai Deng. (Photo: Courtesy).

(Eye Radio) – The SPLM-IO said in a statement on Tuesday that its members fled Juba due to fear of persecution and crackdown by security organs, adding that they did not walk out of the unity government.

In March, Information Minister Hon. Michael Makuei said SPLM-IO deputy chairperson Oyet Nathaniel, who is also first deputy speaker of parliament, fled Juba to Uganda, while other senior officials of the group vanished to undisclosed locations within South Sudan after learning of an impending arrest.

Among those who disappeared were Gen. Yiey Dak, the Deputy Director General of the Internal Security Bureau of National Security Service, Gen. Wilson Walebe of the SSPDF, and Minister of Water Pal Mai Deng.

Makuei explained that these individuals vanished after realizing their movements had been discovered.

However, the group refutes the statement. The Chairperson of SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Communication, Pal Mai Deng described it as “baseless”, and a propaganda from the SPLM-In Government and its allies.

“The narrative that those who left Juba due to the fear of ongoing persecution and crackdown by Security organs, and for their own safety and security, have walked out of the R-TGoNU is baseless and cheap propaganda from the SPLM-IG and its allies,” Mai said in a statement.

“Their aim is to abrogate the R-ARCSS through the appointment of SPLM-IG members and SPLM-IO defectors to National and State positions meant for the SPLM-IO, based on the power-sharing agreement, in further violation of the R-ARCSS Articles 1.5 to 1.16.”

The SPLM-IO further reiterated its “commitment to the full implementation of the Revitalized Agreement in letter and spirit” and called on other parties signatories to the peace deal to show the same commitment.

The opposition said it is committed to dialogue as the only means for resolving challenges facing the implementation and violations of the peace pact

It further called for the unconditional release of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and other political and military detainees, and the unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from the territory of South Sudan.

The SPLM-IO has been rattled by fresh split after a faction met at a hotel in Juba 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 interim leadership will reportedly end when 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 party’s Deputy Chairman Oyet Nathaniel condemned the appointment of an interim leadership and called on guarantors and observers of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement to safeguard the pact from abrogation.

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.

This prompted the United Nations to warn that the country was on the brink of another civil war.