By William Madouk<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Several Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement\/Army-in-Opposition (SPLM\/A-IO) officials have been detained for being \u201cin conflict with the law\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Information Minister, Michael Makuei Lueth confirmed the detention of the officials, including the Deputy Army Chief, General Gabriel Duop Lam and Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chuol.<\/p>\n The arrests follow escalating tensions after the White Army, a local armed youth group, captured an SSPDF base in Nasir County, Upper Nile State.<\/p>\n The government alleges the White Army is allied with the SPLM\/A-IO, a claim the opposition denies.<\/p>\n He clarified that the officials were arrested because they were \u201cin conflict with the law\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey were arrested because they are in conflict with the law. There is no joke about that, because what we need is security. And as such if anybody is arrested, you must have been arrested because of a reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are in conflict with the law, it means you are accused, you are in violation of the provision of the law. And once, you are in violation of provision of the law, you are automatically in conflict with the law and if you are in conflict with the law, you are arrested and taken to the court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n At this time, at least 6 people had been detained and held incommunicado by the security.<\/p>\n Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, Deputy Chief of Staff of the South Sudan People\u2019s Defense Forces (SSPDF), and acting Chief of Staff of the SPLA-IO had been arrested on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Similarly, the minister of Petroleum, Puot Kang Chuol is also been arrested at his residence in the Thongpiny.<\/p>\n Those detained are; Gen. Koang Gatkuoth Kerjiok, Inspector General of the SSPDF – Gen. Wesley Welebe, Assistant Chief of Staff for Supply, Gen. Ashhab Khamis Fahal, Assistant Chief of Staff for Moral Orientation.<\/p>\n Others include Gen. Garang Ayii Akol, the Director General of Procurement at the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs, and a representative of the SSOA. All are under house arrest without security.<\/p>\n The detentions, however, take place against the backdrop of heightened political and security tensions, particularly in the three SPLM-IO-controlled states of Western Equatoria, Western Bahr el Ghazal, and Upper Nile.<\/p>\n Analysts speculated that the detentions are due to recent unrest in these states, as well as the difficulty in carrying out the 2018 peace agreement.<\/p>\n SPLM-IO Spokesperson Pal Mai Deng, stated that Gen. Lam was detained on Tuesday morning by Gen. Paul Nang, Chief of Defense Forces of the SSPDF.<\/p>\n Machar\u2019s party condemned the arrest, citing that it\u2019s a violation of 2018 peace deal.<\/p>\n Mai called for Gen. Lam\u2019s immediate release and urged all parties to de-escalate tensions, particularly in light of recent violence in Nasir County, Upper Nile State.<\/p>\n \u201cWe take this opportunity to call upon the guarantors of the Agreement and partners to intervene in order to avoid a return to full-scale violence,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n Sirir Gabriel Yiei Ruot, the Press Secretary in the Office of the Minister of Petroleum, confirmed the arrest of his boss, Puot Kang.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 2:00 AM on March 5, 2025, Hon. Puot Kang Chol, several family members, and his bodyguards were arrested at his residence in Juba,\u201d said Sirir.<\/p>\n He said that the operation was carried out by officers of the National Security Service.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the SSPDF spokesperson, Maj-Gen Lul Raui stated that his office would not brief media on security situation in Nasir and the surrounding areas, citing the fact that his office is unable to provide details.<\/p>\n \u201cThis brief message serves to inform all media agencies that, the Office of SSPDF Spokesperson, as of now, is not in a position to provide media briefing on the security situation in Nasir and the surrounding areas,\u201d he said in his post on Facebook page.<\/p>\n On Monday, the White Army, a paramilitary group is said to have seized control of the strategic town of Nasir in Upper Nile State, after heavy fighting with government forces.<\/p>\n Information Minister Makuei confirmed that the White Army had taken control of the area.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By William Madouk Several Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement\/Army-in-Opposition (SPLM\/A-IO) officials have been detained for being \u201cin conflict with the law\u201d. Information Minister, Michael Makuei Lueth confirmed the detention of the officials, including the Deputy Army Chief, General Gabriel Duop Lam and Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chuol. The arrests follow[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":33795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Information-Minister-Michael-Makuei-Lueth-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33796,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33794\/revisions\/33796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}