Foreign
Treason Trial Begins For South Sudan VP Machar As ‘Unity Government’ Breaks
South Sudan has started holding a trial for First Vice President Riek Machar, who has been sacked by his decades-long rival, President Salva Kiir, and charged with murder, treason and crimes against humanity in relation to rebellion and an attack by a militia linked with ethnic tensions.
Machar and seven others who have been charged alongside him, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol, were seen sitting inside a barred cage in the court on Monday during a live broadcast on national television.
Machar has been held in house arrest at his residence in the capital, Juba, for months following investigations by the government of his allies.
Earlier this month, a decree read on state radio said Kiir suspended the first vice president due to charges stemming from his alleged involvement in attacks by the White Army against federal forces in March.
The White Army, a loose band of armed youths, attacked a military base in Nasir, northeastern South Sudan, and killed more than 250 soldiers on Machar’s orders, according to the government.
Edmund Yakani, executive director of South Sudan activist group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told local media that the trial must be transparent and fair to build up trust in the judicial system.
He urged both leaders and their parties to “adhere to the principle of resolving political misunderstanding through dialogue” rather than violence, which would benefit no one.
Machar’s party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in Opposition (SPLM/IO), has called the charges “fabricated” and said its members were arrested illegally. Machar’s lawyer on Monday said “an incompetent court” that lacks jurisdiction is judging him.
Fears of a return to ruinous civil war
After the vice president’s arrest, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on all parties to exercise restraint and warned that they risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” and returning to a state of civil war.
In 2013, two years after the country gained independence from Sudan following decades of war, oil-producing South Sudan descended into a civil war.
The devastating conflict, which scarred the country and left some 400,000 people killed, pitted Kiir and his allies from the ethnic Dinka group against Machar, who is from the Nuer, the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan.
More than four million people, or about one-third of the population, were displaced from their homes before a 2018 peace deal saw the pair form a “national unity” government.
But they never fully saw eye-to-eye, leaving the country in a state of limbo.
Both leaders held on to their armed factions that were never fully integrated and unified despite agreements, while reforms were delayed, and presidential elections were repeatedly postponed.
Armed clashes have erupted in several parts of the country over the past months, with both sides accusing each other of breaking ceasefire agreements.
Authorities in South Sudan are, in the meantime, plundering billions of dollars in public funds as the impoverished country also deals with a deepening food crisis, according to the UN.
“The country has been captured by a predatory elite that has institutionalised the systematic looting of the nation’s wealth for private gain,” the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said last week.
No fewer than six people, including popular billionaire businessman, Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, have been killed in a helicopter crash.
Naija News learnt that the family spokesperson, Herbert Chivayo, confirmed the deaths to ZBC News, saying those closest to the couple were struggling to come to terms with the loss.
Similarly, the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary, Nick Mangwana, also confirmed the incident in a statement on 𝕏.
He said the helicopter was carrying the businessman, three other passengers and two pilots when it crashed in Marondera, Mashonaland East on Wednesday, September 30, 2026.
The government extended its condolences to the victims’ families and friends.
The statement read, “The Government wishes to confirm that a helicopter crash has occurred, involving one high-profile businessman, three other passengers, and two pilots.
“Current information indicates that there were no survivors in this crash. The Zimbabwe Republic Police will confirm the names of the victims in due course.
“We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the victims, their families, and their friends during this difficult time.”
In other news, the Chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Fiidi Council Ward, Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Igbu Job Terhemen, has reportedly been killed by unknown assailants.
Terhemen was allegedly attacked in the early hours of Wednesday and later found unconscious near his residence along the Makurdi-Otukpo Road.
According to Daily Trust, a friend of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Terhemen left his home on Tuesday evening to watch a local football match in the Kanshio area of Makurdi.
According to the source, he did not return home after the match, prompting relatives and friends to search for him.
The source said Terhemen was eventually found around 2 am in a bush near his residence, close to the NNPC depot.
A court in The Hague sentenced Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci to 25 years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty of war crimes committed during the late 1990s conflict in which Kosovo broke away from Serbia
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers convicted Thaci, 58, of murder, torture, cruel treatment, and the illegal detention of civilians
The tribunal determined that he bore criminal responsibility as the top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian separatist force that fought Serbian security forces between 1998 and 1999. Presiding judge Charles Smith said Thaci “actively participated in and encouraged crimes.”
The court established that KLA forces under his command murdered 96 people identified as political opponents or perceived collaborators with Serbian authorities. A further 385 people were arbitrarily detained, 303 were tortured, and around 50 others suffered cruel treatment.
Judge Smith told the court: “The scale and nature of the crimes committed were very serious. The so-called intelligence on which many of these victims were arrested, detained and killed was little more than unverified rumours. Based on that information, victims were called and described as spies and collaborators and violently treated.”
The American judge was careful to clarify that the proceedings were “not about the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army” or Kosovo’s goal of independence. Thaci, who denied all charges, stood in silence as the sentence was delivered. He retains the right to appeal.
Three other former senior KLA figures were tried alongside Thaci. Jakup Krasniqi also received a 25-year sentence, while Kadri Veseli was jailed for 18 years and Rexhep Selimi for 13 years. All four had denied the charges.
The panel acquitted the four men on six counts of crimes against humanity, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove those crimes were part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
The verdicts drew an immediate public response in Kosovo, where Thaci remains a revered figure for many ethnic Albanians. Thousands had gathered in the capital Pristina ahead of the ruling, with crowds filling a central square waving red and black Albanian flags and banners calling for the men’s acquittal. When the guilty verdicts were announced on a big screen, many in the crowd booed and wept.
Thaci had resigned from the Kosovo presidency in late 2020 to face the charges, after nearly three years of trial proceedings. In his closing address to the court in February, he said: “Throughout my life, I stood with the people of Kosovo defending freedom, life and dignity. I was always guided by the Western ideals of democracy, equality and justice.”
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama reacted to the verdict by posting an image of barbed wire stretched across a map of Europe, with a single word: “Unbelievable.”
A new investigation by The New York Times claims Sudan’s military ran an organized program in 2024 to develop and produce chlorine-based munitions, escalating long-standing allegations of chemical weapons use in the country’s war.
According to the report, the Times reviewed nearly 150 documents, plus photos, videos, audio recordings and thousands of messages. The materials describe months of work to design, test and manufacture about 300 bombs filled with chlorine.
Brigadier General Tariq Hussein is named as one of the principal supervisors. The documents detail a munition that combined explosives with large quantities of chlorine, and tests carried out before production.
One of the most serious claims involves the source of the chemical. The dossier alleges that some chlorine was taken from a water-treatment facility in Omdurman, at a time when Sudan is facing cholera outbreaks and a collapse of basic services.
The investigation also points to senior leadership. Voice and text messages reportedly implicate army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in knowledge of the program, and in orders to “remove all traces” after U.S. pressure and sanctions.
This is not the first time chemical weapons have been alleged in Sudan. Independent.ng reported that the Sudanese Alliance for Rights filed a case at the International Criminal Court against four senior Port Sudan Authority leaders, including al-Burhan, accusing them of using chemical weapons and committing serious violations against civilians. The lawsuit also names Yasser al-Atta, Shams al-Din al-Kabashi and Major General Taher Mohammed, and calls for an urgent ICC investigation.
The U.S. has already acted on earlier findings.
Independent.ng noted that Washington imposed additional penalties in May 2025 over the alleged use of chemical weapons, further linking Sudan’s war to international politics.
Chlorine is permitted for water purification, but using it as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Sudan ratified. Experts say its civilian availability makes it easier to obtain and harder to monitor than military-grade agents.
With the conflict since April 2023 already causing mass displacement and famine, rights groups are now calling for an independent international investigation with access to sites, documents and the chain of command.
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