{"id":45119,"date":"2026-06-04T14:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=45119"},"modified":"2026-06-04T14:55:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:55:50","slug":"court-hears-puot-kangs-efforts-to-prevent-nasir-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/court-hears-puot-kangs-efforts-to-prevent-nasir-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Court hears Puot Kang\u2019s efforts to prevent Nasir conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yiep Joseph<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Suspended Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol told the court on Tuesday that he made efforts to prevent the outbreak of fighting in Nasir before his arrest.<\/p>\n

Testifying during the 83rd court session, Puot, who is the first accused in the case, said he actively worked to de-escalate tensions.<\/p>\n

He said his efforts as a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement\/Army-In Opposition (SPLM\/A-IO), a signatory to the 2018 peace agreement, and a member of the high-level peace implementation committee were positive.<\/p>\n

During questioning by the panel of judges, Puot was asked to explain his role in preventing the conflict.<\/p>\n

He told the court that he contacted armed youth leaders and urged them not to attack the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) garrison in Nasir.<\/p>\n

The court heard that, as tensions mounted in Nasir, Puot coordinated arrangements for a presidency meeting at the request of First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar to address the situation.<\/p>\n

According to his testimony, the presidency later met and adopted resolutions aimed at easing tensions and preventing violence.<\/p>\n

Puot further testified that he engaged local chiefs and leaders of armed youth groups in Nasir and Ulang to help implement the presidency’s resolutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I got home, I started looking for the contact of Tore Gile, only to be informed that he had been killed that morning,\u201d Puot told the court. \u201cI asked who had taken over and was told it was Kang Makana.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he later obtained Kang Makana\u2019s contact and spoke to him at around 11 p.m., urging him to discourage any attack on the SSPDF garrison.<\/p>\n

According to Puot, Kang Makana informed him that youth from his section had already left Nasir and that he doubted youth from other sections would heed his instructions following the killing of Tore Gile.<\/p>\n

Puot testified that he insisted there was no need for fighting because the presidency had already discussed the matter and adopted measures to address the situation.<\/p>\n

The court also questioned Puot over a series of messages presented by the prosecution and allegedly extracted from his mobile phones by a digital forensic expert.<\/p>\n

Puot denied authoring the messages, arguing that some of the individuals referenced were not among his contacts.<\/p>\n

He further challenged the authenticity of the evidence, citing what he described as inconsistencies in the dates and times associated with the communications.<\/p>\n

Following the conclusion of Puot\u2019s examination, the judges adjourned proceedings until June 5, when the second accused is scheduled to take the witness stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yiep Joseph Suspended Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol told the court on Tuesday that he made efforts to prevent the outbreak of fighting in Nasir before his arrest. Testifying during the 83rd court session, Puot, who is the first accused in the case, said he actively worked to de-escalate[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Puot-Kang-Chol-and-other-co-accused-during-one-of-the-court-sessions-courtesy-photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45119","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45122,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45119\/revisions\/45122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}